The swift fallout continues from Thursday’s wave of federal prosecutor resignations over President Trump’s Justice Department moving to drop Mayor Eric Adams‘ corruption charges — with a number of city pols freshly calling for Hizzoner’s ouster and Gov. Kathy Hochul not ruling out taking steps to remove him from office.
Danielle Sassoon’s stunning resignation Thursday as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York after refusing a top DOJ official’s request to dismiss the Adams case prompted five other federal prosecutors with the Public Integrity Division to step down that same day after the Justice Department tried to transfer the case from the SDNY to the unit, the New York Times reported.
However, an explosive Wednesday letter that Sassoon sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi triggered the new calls for Adams’ removal from office. In the Feb. 12 letter, Sassoon said she could not comply with the order to drop the charges because it is “inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor.” She said the memo ordering the case be dismissed, which expressly sites Adams being able to focus on helping implement Trump’s immigration crackdown as a reason for letting him off the hook, amounted to a quid-pro-quo.
On Friday morning, one of the Manhattan federal prosecutors on Adams’ case, Hagan Scotten, also resigned his post rather than file the DOJ’s motion to dismiss.
The political ramifications came quickly, with a wave of new calls for Adams to step down or for Hochul to take action.
“The last thing the people of New York want is for our city to turn into an annex of the Trump administration, yet that is exactly what is happening,” state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris said in a Friday morning statement. “Eric Adams is clearly compromised and can no longer be considered the legitimate leader of our city. He must step down or be removed.”
Hochul to ‘figure out the right approach’
Meanwhile, Hochul, for the first time, did not rule out the possibility of giving Adams the boot during a Thursday night interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
The governor noted it was “unbelievably unprecedented” for the main Justice Department to interfere in Adams’ case and that the allegations in Sassoon’s letter were “extremely concerning and serious.” While she stopped short of committing to remove Adams, she did leave the door open to the possibility, which contrasts with her previous position of showing no appetite to dismiss the mayor.
“I cannot, as the governor of this state, have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction like a lot of other people are saying right now,” Hochul said. “I have to do what’s smart, what’s right, and I’m consulting with other leaders in government at this time.”
She added that she needs time to “process this and figure out the right approach.”
Hochul’s second-in-command, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, did not wait for his boss to make up her mind, as he called on Adams to resign in a social media post on Thursday night. But he did stop short of urging Hochul to force Adams out.
“New York City deserves a mayor accountable to the people, not beholden to the president,” Delgado wrote. “Mayor Adams should step down.”
When asked about Hochul’s comments during a Friday morning FOX & Friends interview, Adams simply said, “She has her role; I have my role.”
‘I want ICE to deliver’
The trend of news surrounding Adams’ case came as he appears to be complying with Trump’s effort to round up and deport undocumented migrants in the five boroughs.
After meeting with Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan on Thursday, Adams said he would issue an executive order allowing federal immigration agents to operate on Rikers Island for the first time in 10 years. The mayor’s move sparked immediate outrage from elected officials and advocates who said it violates the city’s sanctuary laws, which bar its cooperation with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement in many instances.
Adams and Homan appeared jointly Friday morning on FOX & Friends, during which Homan, when asked if Adams failed to “come through” in assisting in the immigration crackdown, said he would “be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?'”
“And I want ICE to deliver,” Mayor Adams said in response. “We’re going to deliver for the safety of the American people.”
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, along with Council Members Alexa Aviles (D-Brooklyn) and Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn), tied the mayor’s announcement directly to Sassoon’s resignation over his charges being dropped.
“Today’s statement by the mayor only further connects it to the resignations at DOJ over the apparent quid pro quo identified by the recently resigned U.S. Attorney for the Southern District,” they said in a Feb. 13 statement. “This announcement only deepens the concern that the mayor is prioritizing the interests of the Trump Administration over those of New Yorkers.”
