An air of crisis permeated the Justice Department Friday, following a wave of resignations by top prosecutors and aggressive demands by President Donald Trump’s appointees that career attorneys carry out instructions from the department’s new leadership or face dismissal.
The Pressure on DOJ Lawyers
For the second day in a row, the department’s acting No. 2 official, Emil Bove, pressured DOJ lawyers to file court papers seeking to drop the pending corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Eventually, the pressure campaign succeeded: Two DOJ officials, Antoinette Bacon and Edward Sullivan, put their names on a motion submitted Friday evening seeking to end the case. In a highly unusual move, Bove also signed the motion personally.
Resignations and Outrage
But the events leading up to that terse, four-page filing left a trail of resignations — and outrage — within the department.
One of the lead prosecutors on the Adams case, Hagan Scotten of the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, quit during the dust-up. In a withering resignation letter, he accused Bove and Trump of embracing a deal with Adams in which the Justice Department would drop the charges in exchange for the mayor’s support of Trump’s policy agenda.
“I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion,” Scotten wrote to Bove. “But it was never going to be me.”
Ultimatums and Resignations
Meanwhile, at the Justice Department in Washington, Bove issued an ultimatum Friday to the attorneys in the department’s Public Integrity Section: Choose someone in the section to carry out the order to seek dismissal of the Adams case, or be fired.
Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade relayed word of the showdown in a social media post that rocketed around the department — and the broader legal world.
“DOJ leadership has put all Public Integrity Section lawyers into a room with 1 hour to decide who will dismiss Adams indictment or else all will be fired,” McQuade wrote Friday morning on X. “Sending them strength to stand by their oath, which is to support the Constitution, not the president’s political agenda.”
The Turmoil Escalates
Justice Department spokespeople did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
“I think it’s safe to say this is the most dire crisis that current attorneys of the Department of Justice have ever faced in a modern era of the Justice Department,” said one former senior Justice Department official, who was granted anonymity to avoid potential retaliation against colleagues still at DOJ. “The crudeness of the intimidation is just absolutely chilling.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the decision to drop the case, claiming the bribery and related charges against Adams, a Democrat, represented “weaponization” of the department.
“We have a right to protect against weaponization in New York and every state in this country,” Bondi told Fox News.
The Revolt Continues
The turmoil over the Adams case reached a boil when the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Danielle Sassoon, resigned rather than obey the order to drop the case. When Bove referred the case to DOJ’s headquarters in Washington, more resignations quickly followed from officials who disagreed with the decision.
A former veteran of the Public Integrity Section, Peter Zeidenberg, said the resistance from department lawyers to signing the papers requesting the dismissal is driven by the fact that the judge handling the case is sure to call prosecutors into court to explain the government’s reversal.
“It’s going to be a bloodbath. That’s why no one wants to sign it,” said Zeidenberg, now a defense attorney in Washington.
Historical Parallels
The revolt at the Justice Department drew comparisons to the so-called Saturday Night Massacre, the 1973 episode in which the department’s top two officials resigned rather than carry out President Richard Nixon’s order to fire the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal. However, in this case, the department’s top officials — Bondi and Bove — are aligned with Trump, and they are the ones delivering the orders that are prompting massive resistance.
Bondi was sworn in as attorney general last week. Bove is acting as the deputy attorney general while Trump’s permanent pick for that slot, Todd Blanche, goes through Senate confirmation. Both Bove and Blanche worked as Trump’s criminal defense lawyers before he won the 2024 election.
Political Fallout and Resignations
The former senior DOJ official who spoke on condition of anonymity lamented that Bove’s pressure campaign has not prompted more outcry from entities with the ability to check the department’s leaders.
“In any other world, the Senate Judiciary Committee and House Judiciary Committee would be immediately plunging into action,” the former official said. “You’d have the IG [inspector general] launching an investigation, you’d have OPR [the Office of Professional Responsibility] launching an investigation. And they’re all silent.”
Another former senior DOJ official deplored the wreckage caused by Bove’s bid to drop the Adams case and praised the prosecutors who quit for their principled stance.
“I’m very proud of how they’ve conducted themselves. It’s remarkable,” said the second ex-official, who also asked not to be named to avoid fallout for colleagues.
Conclusion and Speculation
The second ex-official predicted that the resignations might get Trump’s attention and convince him that the upheaval is undermining his agenda — a notion that has bubbled up among some Trump supporters.
“It’s horrible, but this might have a beneficial effect. Rational people need to recognize these are conservative Republicans fighting corrupt Democrats,” the ex-official said.
Scotten, for instance, is an Iraq War veteran and Bronze Star recipient who clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts at the Supreme Court and at an appeals court for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Both Scotten and Sassoon are registered Republicans.
When Bove first ordered the U.S. attorney’s office to abandon the case against Adams, he justified the decision by saying the charges would impede Adams’ ability to support Trump’s immigration agenda.
But Scotten urged Bove to find someone to tell Trump that dismissing the case against Adams as part of a broader deal with him on immigration issues is unwise and unethical.
Sassoon, likewise, criticized Bove’s rationale in her own resignation letter. At a Jan. 31 meeting she attended with Bove, she said, Adams’ lawyers floated a quid pro quo, whereby Adams could help Trump on immigration if the charges were dismissed. Bove, Sassoon wrote, “admonished” a member of her team for taking notes during the meeting and later had the notes collected.
The showdown over the Adams case and the spate of ensuing resignations came as morale at the department was already sapped by a series of controversies. They include the firings of longtime prosecutors involved in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump, the removal of top leaders at the FBI, the firing of prosecutors handling Jan. 6 cases in the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office and a battle over Bove’s demand for the names of all FBI agents who worked on Jan. 6 investigations.
Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.
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