You may have smelled something rotten coming out of the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ), this last week pertaining to the dropped prosecution of the New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat. I haven’t seen anything like this since the famous resignations during the Nixon administration dubbed the “Saturday Night Massacre.” In that instance Nixon ordered two successive Republican Attorneys General serving in his administration to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor in charge of the Watergate case. Rather than obey Nixon’s direct order, Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus sequentially and abruptly resigned rather than obey, citing their duty to the Constitution. Robert Bork, (remember him?) complied and fired Cox. The stink from that incident was a precipitating event leading to Nixon’s resignation.
Last September prosecutors at the Southern District of New York, part of the DOJ during the Biden administration, indicted Adams “with five counts in an alleged long-standing conspiracy connected to improper benefits, illegal campaign contributions and an attempted cover-up.” The investigation leading up to the indictment had been quietly brewing since at least 2023. (NBC offers a detailed timeline of the events.)
Doug Muder, in another excellent article notes:
At the time, the Adams indictment was used in arguments that the Biden Justice Department had not been politicized or "weaponized", as Trump frequently claimed. Yes, a special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland had indicted Trump, but that was because Trump had broken numerous laws. DoJ also went after Democratic lawbreakers like Adams and New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez.
Adams denied the charges, refused to resign, and pleaded not guilty. [1] A trial was scheduled to begin in April. During the transition period after Trump's election win in November, Adams met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and with Trump's border czar Tom Homan. Adams attended Trump's inauguration. The next day, Adams began claiming that his indictment was retribution for criticizing President Biden's immigration policies (even though the timeline on that doesn't work). On February 10, after additional meetings between Adams, his attorneys, and Trump officials, Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove [acting for Trump’s DOJ] sent a letter instructing SDNY to dismiss charges against Adams "without prejudice", meaning that the charges could be refiled in the future.
To date seven federal prosecutors (U.S. Attorneys) have resigned rather than comply with Bove’s directive to drop the case against Adams. Two of them (at least), Danielle Sassoon and Hagan Scotten, both with sterling conservative credentials, summarily resigned and issued scathing critiques of the DOJ request. Scotten’s letter (it’s fairly short) can be read here. Sassoon’s here (it is eight pages).
One of the keys to all this is understanding that the DOJ had two options in commanding that the case against Adams be dismissed, “with prejudice” or “without prejudice”, two rather obscure legal terms that have only a little to do with the conventional meaning of “prejudice”. Prejudice in legal wording essentially means “pre-judgement”. Hence, to dismiss “with prejudice” means that the case is dismissed and the defendant is judged to be innocent of the crime alleged, that is, the case against the defendant cannot be revived. To dismiss, as was done here, “without prejudice” means “not pre-judged”, that is, the DOJ reserves the right to revive the case against Adams, essentially leaving Adams with a figurative sword of Damocles hanging over his head in case he reneges on the apparent quid pro quo, aiding the Trump administration in deportations. This reeks to high heaven of gangland style corruption: Unless you, Mr. Adams, cooperate like you agreed in exchange for dropping the case against you, we still have control.
How easy it would have been to expel much of the appearance of quid pro quo corruption if the DOJ had demanded dismissal “with prejudice.” How very ironic that Trump continually accuses Democrats of “weaponization of the judiciary” when, within the first month of his administration his own prosecutors rebel when they are demanded to do just exactly that.
Spend a little time to acquaint yourself with the details of this case. (To start, check out the links above.) Talk with your friends and neighbors about it. It took a while for the Saturday Night Massacre’s import to sink into the public consciousness and ignite a backlash. I would that the country still possesses the moral fiber that it had then.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry