About two dozen lawyers in the Justice Department’s public integrity section conferred on Friday morning to wrestle with a demand from a Trump political appointee that many of them viewed as improper: One of them needed to sign the official request to dismiss corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams. The acting deputy attorney general, Emil … Read more
Federal judges have almost no ability under the law to refuse a government request to drop criminal charges. The corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York may be the exception. On Thursday, Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, Danielle R. Sassoon, resigned rather than obey an order to seek dismissal of the charges against the … Read more
Federal prosecutors in Washington formally asked a judge on Friday to drop corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York City after the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan resigned in the face of an order to carry out the request. The prosecutors, Emil Bove III, Edward Sullivan and Antoinette T. Bacon, filed the request … Read more
Seven former top Manhattan federal prosecutors, including several who served under Republican presidents, issued a statement Friday praising Danielle R. Sassoon’s decision to resign rather than obey an order to seek dismissal of corruption charges against New York City’s mayor. “Her commitment to integrity and the rule of law reflects the finest traditions of the … Read more
Before she resigned in protest of the Justice Department’s order to dismiss a corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan made a troubling claim. In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the prosecutor, Danielle R. Sassoon, said the Justice Department was essentially offering a quid pro … Read more
Ken Wydro, a playwright, director and producer who with his wife, Vy Higginsen, poured their life savings into the Off Broadway gospel musical “Mama, I Want to Sing,” an enduring work of Black theater that ran for more than 2,800 performances, died on Jan. 21 at his home in Harlem. He was 81. The cause … Read more
It was just before midnight on Thursday and dozens of couples were waiting on and around the steps of the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio. There were men in cowboy hats and suit jackets, and women in classic wedding dresses and veils. They were there to get married. At 12:01 a.m. on Valentine’s Day, … Read more
When the Justice Department demanded all the names of F.B.I. personnel who had worked on investigations into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, it made a similar request about a high-profile terrorism case involving Hamas. But why the department’s acting deputy leader, Emil Bove III, sought the information remained unclear, leaving agents and prosecutors … Read more
At least six Justice Department officials decided this week to quit rather than obey an order to drop the corruption case against New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams. The sheer number of resignations in such a short period of time has reminded legal experts of the Saturday Night Massacre. It was Oct. 20, 1973, and … Read more
When the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors on Monday to drop the corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, he hoped that it would save his political career and allow him to better focus on governing the nation’s largest city. Instead, the mayor is in even more peril, his political future is … Read more