The top US prosecutor in Manhattan has resigned days after the US justice department told her office to drop a corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Danielle Sassoon, a conservative lawyer recently promoted by Donald Trump, said dismissing the case would have set a “breathtaking and dangerous precedent”.
Adams is alleged to have accepted gifts totalling more than $100,000 (£75,000) from Turkish citizens in exchange for favours, such as waiving safety regulations at the Turkish consulate in the city. He denies the charges.
On Monday, a Department of Justice official said the case “restricted” the mayor’s ability to address “illegal immigration and violent crime” in the city.
The order from Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, did not address the merits of the case against Adams, a Democrat, and noted that the department would reserve the right to reinstitute the charges after New York City’s mayoral election in November.
Sassoon refused to drop the case, however, setting out her reasoning in a letter to Bove’s boss, Attorney General Pam Bondi, on Thursday.
“Because the law does not support a dismissal, and because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged, I cannot agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations,” she wrote.
Sassoon’s said she had a duty to enforce the law impartially, “and that includes prosecuting a validly returned indictment regardless whether its dismissal would be politically advantageous, to the defendant or to those who appointed me.”
Bove shot back in a letter accepting her resignation. He accused Sassoon of attempting to “continue pursuing a politically motivated prosecution despite an express instruction to dismiss the case”.
He also said that other prosecutors who worked on the Adams case would be placed on leave and subject to an internal investigation – and that Sassoon would investigated as well.
The New York mayor met with Trump in Florida days before his inauguration, and then attended his swearing in ceremony on 20 January. Adams denied at the time that he discussed his legal issues with the incoming president.
Later on Thursday, Trump told reporters that he had not asked for the case against Adams to be dropped.
However Bove’s letter described his instructions as “direct orders implementing the policy of a duly elected President”.
Adams also met Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan on Thursday to discuss the administration’s immigration crackdown. After the meeting he said he would allow federal immigration authorities to re-establish an office at the city’s Rikers Island jail.
In a statement, Adams said: “I want to work with the new federal administration, not war with them, to find common ground and make better the lives of New Yorkers.”
Adams was indicted in September 2024 on charges of wire fraud, bribery, and receiving campaign contributions from foreigners.
According to a 57-page indictment, the mayor allegedly accepted more than hotel stays, lavish meals and airline upgrades from Turkish nationals beginning in 2016, when he was president of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
In one instance, Adams is alleged to have paid $600 for a two-night stay at a luxury hotel in Istanbul, a visit that was valued at approximately $7,000.