When President Donald Trump entered his position last month, and promised to clean what he described as a political “weapon”, a few of them guessed that the mayor of New York City would be an early donor.
But the efforts over the past two weeks by the US Department of Justice to Mr. Trump to reject an indictment against Mayor Eric Adams, for critics, has only feared allegations that the judicial system is being armed. There are signs that the crisis in the section has spread beyond the Adams case.
Mayor Adams face five charges that violate the anti -corruption laws, although he kept his innocence. But in a surprise step last week, Acting Deputy Prosecutor Emile Bouf issued instructions to the prosecutors at the Ministry of Justice in the southern province of New York to drop the case.
Why did we write this
The efforts of the Trump administration’s Ministry of Justice to reject an indictment against New York mayor Eric Adam The administration’s problems may have spread beyond the Adams case.
This has sparked a political, legal and ethical storm that experts say experts go beyond a “Saturday night massacre” in Wettergate. So far, the general prosecutors of the Ministry of Justice have resigned seven professionalism instead of following the order of Mr. Bouv. They claimed the presence of a supporter between Mr. Adams and the Trump administration, as the government’s issue was dropped in exchange for the mayor’s cooperation with Mr. Trump’s efforts to deport.
Critics say that both Mr. Adams and Mr. Bouv have denied the presence of Kwaid for professionals, although the transfer to the dismissal without bias will give the Ministry of Justice the option of accusations again, thus keeping mayor Adams prohibiting the Trump administration.
The Ministry of Justice did not respond to the request for comment.
On a larger scale, recent weeks have seen a wave of Ministry of Justice’s resignations greater than any since Watergate, when the White House pressure resigned to the agency’s resignation to protest. It seems that Trump’s actions appointed to the agency, who say they are working to end what they call the political weapons of the judicial system, has an opposite impact.
“Regardless of political inclinations, most people want the judicial system to be fair and every person accused of committing similar crimes, regardless of who they are, treats.”
She adds: “We lose its confidence in the judicial system when the party achieves power and accuses its political opponents without sufficient evidence, and the same applies when the strong avoids responsibility for their crimes because of their position.”
A wave of resignation in protest
On his first day in his post, Mr. Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to end the “federal government weapon”. Mr. Buff, who defended Mr. Trump when the Ministry of Justice sued him during the Biden administration, last week decided that the matter means that the Adams case must be dropped.
But to do this, he needed a public prosecutor to sign his rejection proposal.
Daniel Sasson, Acting President of the Southern Province in New York and Ain Trump, wrote to Public Prosecutor Bam Bondi on February 12 that she would not drop the case. She added that the leadership of the Ministry of Justice did not reconsider, was ready to resign.
Mr. Bouv accepted her resignation the next day.
Two Mrs. Sasson’s deputies in New York immediately stepped down, including Hagan Scotten, an American lawyer who leads the prosecution in Adams – who sent an email Resignation message To the deputy public prosecutor. “A fool” or “mountains” ultimately wrote a rejection proposal. “But I was never.”
After that, Mr. Bouv turned to the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice Washington. After meetings with senior prosecutors in the General Integrity Department, three instead of signing the proposal. Likewise, the head of the criminal section of the Ministry did. Ultimately, the Public Prosecutor in the Public Integrity Department agreed to sign the separation proposal, according to what was reported to protect the jobs of young lawyers.
The agency directed Mr. Adams, a retired New York police chief who was elected in 2021, five months ago. The indictment is accused of five charges of violating federal anti -corruption laws, claiming that more than $ 100,000 of gifts from Turkish citizens in exchange for good deeds, such as helping to open the Turkish consular building despite the safety fears of fires.
At the heart of the Ministry of Justice crisis, there is a fundamental dispute over the Federal Public Prosecutor’s duty. In her message to the Public Prosecutor Bondi, Mrs. Sasson noted that the reasons for Mr. Bouv to end the claim in Adams have nothing to do with the power of the case.
Evidence against Mr. Adams “proves without any doubt that he committed federal crimes”, ” I wrote. “My duty as a public prosecutor [means] The trial of the indictment was properly returned regardless of whether the chapter will be politically beneficial, for the defendant or for those who appointed me. “
In his message, she accepted her resignation, Mr. Bouv saw her differently.
He said that her accusation of “rebellion” and “misconduct” said that Mrs. Sasson’s duty to follow orders from the political appointed in the Ministry of Justice exceeds any legal or moral concerns that may have them.
“In any way, do you support the constitution by disobeying direct orders that implement the policy of an elected president, according to the origins,” books.
Fracture with the rules of management of the Ministry of Justice
Richard Shishter, who served in the Ministry of Justice for a period of three decades, says in an e -mail that the president and the leadership of the Ministry of Justice “have the ability and power to determine the prosecutions that must be approved and rejected.” But “this authority must be practiced within constitutional, legal and moral limits.”
Experts say there is a difference between the agency’s leadership to make broader political decisions and introduce themselves in specific cases.
The leadership of the new Ministry of Justice has every right to change the management policy and focus resources on various fields. There is nothing wrong, for example, with the Public Prosecutor Bondi orders the administration to focus on border security and enforce immigration. But it is difficult to lead the agency to try to influence specific cases.
“Political decisions are taken appropriately by political officials,” says Rebecca Ruyve, a previous southern province in New York. “But when it comes to a certain situation … partisan concerns [cannot be] among them.”
According to the former prosecutors in the Adams case, partisan concerns were part of the batch to reject the claim.
In her message, Mrs. Sasson described a meeting in January with the lawyer of Mr. Bouv and Mr. Adams, during which she said that the mayor’s lawyers “have repeatedly urged and repeatedly up to a supporter of professionals,” which indicates that if the indictment is dropped, he could help the mayor in Evidence of immigration in the Trump administration. She added that the agreement to reject the case “was negotiated without awareness or my participation in my office.”
In his message that accepts her resignation, Mr. Pov wrote that Quid Pro Quo’s allegations are “wrong.” Instead, the claim must be rejected because it has political motives, as it argues. He wrote that the investigation was “accelerating” after Mayor Adams publicly criticized the failed immigration policies of President Joe Biden. The case also led Damian Williams, a former American lawyer. He said that Mr. Williams has “deep links” with former public prosecutor Merik Garland, who “supervised the weapon of the Ministry of Justice.”
In her letter, Ms. Sasson wrote that Mr. Williams was one of four American lawyers who supervised Adams. It “did not manage the daily investigation.”
She concluded that “the court is likely to consider the logical basis of weapons as an excuse.” “Moreover, the refusal of the case will lead to amplification, instead of mitigating, concerns about administration weapons.”
Fears about the weapons of the judicial system have been brewing for years.
During the first Trump administration, the Ministry of Justice faced Party accusations In achieving Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections and its interactions with the Trump campaign. Mr. Trump and his supporters continue to claim that judicial prosecutions related to his efforts to remain in power after his 2020 election defeat were politically driven. (There is no certain evidence that Mr. Biden has commanded any investigation into Mr. Trump.)
Does the judge refuse to suggest the chapter?
This week, concerns about political weapons in the Ministry of Justice seem to have spread beyond the Adams case.
Dennis Cheung – Public Prosecutor for 24 years was leading the criminal department – resigned after the agency’s leadership asked her to open a criminal investigation into a contract concluded by the Biden Administration. according to Medium ReportsShe was forced to resign after she said that there was no “enough evidence” to start the investigation.
The Adams case now fell in the Manhattan Court Hall. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Justice officials put their arguments in front of the American boycott judge, Del, who is why they wanted to end the prosecution. It is rare for the judge to refuse a proposal by the judge – especially, as in this case, when the two parties support him. But in some cases, the judges rejected such a proposal because they felt that he did not serve the “public interest”.
The judge must now determine who is acting in the “public interest”: the leadership of the Ministry of Justice or the federal prosecutors who have resigned collectively. The judge also eliminates fencing novels, one continues. On Wednesday’s session, according to reports, Mr. Bouv said that the government’s discretionary authority regarding the dismissal “can almost be reviewed in this courtroom.”
“Now you have accusations [of weaponized justice] “Going back and forth, and will undermine the confidence of the public,” says Bruce Green, a former New York Southern Prosecutor.
“If you are inclined to Trump, you will have doubts about the previous Ministry of Justice. If you are [not]”You will get your doubts about the current Ministry of Justice,” he says.
“I can’t see how this is a good condition.”
