Danielle Sassoon: Who is prosecutor who quit in protest from Trump justice department?
2025-02-15
Category: news

Ordered by the Trump administration to drop a corruption case against New York's mayor, a top federal prosecutor instead resigned in protest.Danielle Sassoon is known as a tough but fair conservative attorney, according to former colleagues and courtroom rivals alike.
In 2016, Danielle Sassoon wrote a tribute to a former boss, the late US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. She praised the conservative jurist's character, and his legal approach. Such qualities were not universal, she told readers."Sometimes, when you peek behind the curtain of power, you suffer a rude awakening," she wrote. "What you find is corruption, ego, or a lack of ideals and intellectual heft."On Thursday, Sassoon, who had served just three weeks as the interim head of the Southern District of New York offered the country a peek behind that curtain of power.The 38-year-old federal prosecutor resigned on Thursday, after refusing to comply with the Justice Department's order to drop the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.She did not go quietly. In a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi, which quickly became public, Sassoon said there was no legal justification for dismissing the case.She made explosive allegations of a quid-pro-quo proposed by Adams' attorneys to the justice department, and said that the top official who ordered them to stop, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, had not provided sufficient legal justification for his actions.Adams and his attorney, Alex Spiro, have denied Sassoon's allegation. Trump himself has denied political meddling in the criminal case.In her resignation letter, Sassoon wrote: "Because the law does not support a dismissal, and because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged, I cannot agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations."
Sassoon's resignation has sparked the most public upheaval of the criminal justice system since Donald Trump took office in January. Six prosecutors at the justice department's criminal and public integrity unit, including its interim leaders Kevin Driscoll and John Keller, resigned as well, CBS News, BBC News' US media partner, reported. Hagan Scotten, another federal prosecutor, wrote in his own resignation letter that he was "entirely in agreement" with Sassoon's decision not to drop the Adams case.Those who worked with Sassoon say they are not surprised she took this extraordinary stance.Carrie Cohen, a former colleague at the Southern District of New York, described her as "an excellent, diligent, tough, but fair prosecutor, exactly the type of prosecutor that people should want serving their country".On Friday, New York Attorney General Letitia James lauded Sassoon as a "profile in courage".Even those who worked against Sassoon's team of prosecutors in court praised her decision.Sassoon and her team were "fierce advocates for the office", said criminal defence lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman."While I didn't always see eye to eye with them, they were fair and just," he said. In a Fox News appearance on Friday morning, Mayor Adams called Sassoon's allegations "silly" and said she was accusing him of "a crime".Mr Spiro called her accusations a "lie"."We were asked if the case had any bearing on national security and immigration enforcement and we truthfully answered it did," he told CBS News.Sassoon began her legal career at Yale Law School, where she served as a features editor for the prestigious Yale Law Journal. In 2013, she went to London on a Temple Bar Scholarship, where she shadowed barristers and learned the differences between the US and UK justice systems, according to an essay she wrote about her experience abroad.She also served as a foreign law clerk to Justice Hanan Melcer of the Israel Supreme Court in 2009.Sassoon won prestigious clerkships with well known conservative jurists: Judge J Harvie Wilkinson III  of the fourth circuit court of appeals, and later Scalia, perhaps the most high-profile member of the US Supreme Court at the time.Scalia "taught me how to fire a pistol and a rifle, and made me feel like I had grit", Sassoon wrote in her 2016 memorial for Scotus blog. "He thickened my skin, which was the best preparation for a career in a male-dominated field."In her letter to the US attorney general this week, Sassoon highlighted her work for these conservatives, potentially heading off allegations that she defied the justice department for partisan reasons."Both men instilled in me a sense of duty to contribute to the public good and up hold the rule of law, and a commitment to reasoned and thorough analysis," she wrote to Bondi.Sassoon joined the Southern District of New York in 2016 after stints at a white collar firm and on the faculty at New York University Law School. She is a member of the Federalist Society, a professional group of conservative lawyers and scholars.She prosecuted the fraud case against crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, which resulted in a guilty verdict and a sentence of 25 years in prison."There was an abundance of evidence in that case and the outcome was expected by all, but it was complex and the prosecutors were very professional, organized and cogent," said John Coffee, a professor at Columbia University Law School who followed the case closely.
Despite her work on such high profile cases, Sassoon kept a low profile, as is typical for federal prosecutors.She was temporarily leading the Southern District of New York, while Trump's choice for the top job, Jay Clayton, awaited US Senate confirmation. With her conservative bona fides, she could have potentially found work in the new Republican administration.But then came Bove's instruction to drop the corruption case against Adams, who was accused of accepting bribes and improper campaign contributions from foreign nationals. Adams has denied the claims and pleaded not guilty. His trial was set for April.Sassoon's decision to defy orders, and reveal secretive justice department discussions on her way out the door, was extremely unusual, Manhattan attorneys said."This is the stuff you never see," said Arthur Aidala, a criminal defence attorney.The justice department could still take retaliatory measures. In his response to Sassoon, Bove wrote that he was putting assistant US attorneys involved in the Adams case on leave pending an investigation. He also said the justice department would "evaluate your conduct".
But New York lawyers say that Sassoon's act of defiance may have sprung from necessity as much as conviction."Both from a moral perspective and a practical perspective she had no choice," said Mark Zauderer, a high-profile appellate attorney. "The office would have been in shambles."To comply with Bove could have prompted a staff exodus and put the office's reputation at risk, he said.Ms Cohen, who still considered Sassoon a friend, said she recalled the prosecutor as a staunch advocate for her colleagues."You can see that support in her decision to put the office, and her oath of office, at the forefront of her decision to resign," Ms Cohen said.