Federal prosecutors faced an ultimatum on Friday, agree to dismiss the charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s criminal case – or else.
Emil Bove III, the No. 2 in the Justice Department and President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, issued the directive after being stonewalled a day earlier on the same request. He had pushed for dropping the bribery case, but Manhattan federal prosecutors resigned instead of signing it themselves. That led to the Friday showdown.
What is unclear is why Bove, a lawyer, didn’t just sign them himself.
While it is uncommon for the acting deputy attorney general to do so, nothing prevents him from taking action.
Bove had already taken the unprecedented step of demanding the Southern District of New York drop the charges against the mayor purely so Adams could help Trump carry out his agenda. But instead of signing it himself, demanded others write their name on the motion to dismiss the federal criminal case.
His request was snubbed on Thursday by Danielle Sassoon, the Trump-appointed acting U.S attorney for Manhattan, Kevin Driscoll, the appointed acting head of the DoJ’s criminal division and John Keller, the acting head of the Public Integrity Section.
All three resigned on Thursday after refusing to drop the case.
In addition to Sassoon’s refusal to do so and subsequent resignation, the Manhattan prosecutor leading the criminal case against Adams, Hagan Scotten, also refused and resigned – saying only a “fool” or “coward” would file the motion.
On Friday, Bove told prosecutors in DOJ’s public integrity department they had an hour to decide who would sign the motion, or be fired, according to Reuters. That is when Ed Sullivan stepped in and signed the motion to dismiss to take the pressure away from his colleagues, according to Reuters.
By Friday afternoon, the motion for dismissal had still not made its way onto Adams’s criminal case docket.
It is unclear exactly why Bove insisted another federal prosecutor sign off on the motion, but a memo issued by his boss, Attorney General Pam Bondi, upped the stakes for attorneys who refuse to sign their names on legal filings.
Previous precedent allowed lawyers for the government to withhold their names from legal filings if they disagreed with a particular argument but must do so in accordance with their job.
But Bondi rescinded that and made it clear that lawyers who do not sign their name will be “subject to discipline and potential termination.”
That new directive may have inspired Bove to put federal prosecutors in the Public Integrity Section to the test.
The Independent has asked the Justice Department for comment.
Adding another prosecutor’s name to the motion to dismiss could also bolster the government’s argument for dismissing the case, which will ultimately need to be approved by the Manhattan judge overseeing Adams’s criminal case.
The judge could request a hearing on the motion to dismiss given Sassoon issued a sharp rebuke of Bove’s request in an eight-page letter to Bondi in which she accused Adams’s attorney of engaging in “what amounted to a quid pro quo” with Bove.
