Attorney General Pam Bondi must resign in wake of Eric Adams scandal. (Photo: U.S. Justice Dept.)
Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department must resign immediately in the wake of a “quid pro quo” scandal involving New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Pam Bondi, the hard-right Florida Attorney General who took over the top legal job little over a week ago, was thrust into the middle of a major scandal that raises serious questions about her judgment and adherence to the law.
Bondi, however, doubled down on the dismissal. She said on Fox News today that the criminal case against Adams will be dismissed.
The matter will still require the judge in the case to approve the motion.
Bondi praised Adams for his actions on immigration enforcement. She said he would soon regain his security clearance, which had been revoked due to the corruption charges.
Hagan Scotten, an assistant US attorney in the Southern District and lead prosecutor in the Adams case, wrote a scathing email, announcing his resignation that laid out colleagues’ concerns.
“I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion, but it’s never going to be me,” he announced.
Scotten has prosecuted a number of high-profile federal fraud cases leading to convictions of a former Rudy Giuliani associate as well as Adams’ mentee “Bling Bishop” Lamor Whitehead, according to The New York Post.
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Scotten has impecable conservative credentials. A Harvard Law School grad, he clerked for Brett Kavanaugh, while he was a judge and Chief Justice John Roberts. He pushed for Kavanaugh’s confirmtion to the Supreme Court and expressed support for Trump.
But he wrote that department’s justification for dismissing the charges were “so weak as to be transparently contextual.”
“No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy executives,” he wrote.
Significantly, the case would have been dropped “without prejudice,” which would leave the door open to revive the charges at some later date.
Scotten aimed another telling remark directly at Bondi without naming her.
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“Any assistant U.S. Attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way.
“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eentually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”
Bondi knew or should have known that the alleged “quid pro quo” was unethical at best, and likely illegal. She should have been the one to inform Trump that the administration could not proceed with the deal.
Trump, characteristically, denied knowing anything about the alleged “quid pro quo” during a meeting with reporters today (Feb. 14).
New York Mayor Eric Adams has become embroiled in a ‘quid pro quo’ scandal with the Trump
administration. (Photo: NYC MTA)
But Bondi clearly failed the president and put her assistant U.S. attorneys in a position where they had no choice but to compromise their ethics and integrity, or resign.
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She must do the same. Allowing this matter to go forward is a serious breach of her ethics and integrity and raises serious question whether she has the temperment or judgment to continue in such an important job as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
Meanwhile, Adams is also facing calls to resign, after more details about the arrangement emerged today, according to The New York Times.
As it turns out, Adams, in a letter to the White House, first asked to dismiss the charges.
Further discussions followed, possibly involving Bondi. The Justice Department ultimately relied on a legal justification provided by Adams’ lawyers to dismiss the case, according to The Times.
Adams allegedly agreed to a deal to aid the Trump administration’s mass deportations. He has denied the allegations.
A top Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, reportedly ordered the corruption charges dropped on Monday.
But Danielle Sassoon, the Southern District’s acting Republican U.S. Attorney, triggered the crisis when she informed Bondi she could not in good faith ask a judge to drop the charges.
In a letter to Bondi on Wednesday, Sassoon said prosecutors in her office had been prepared to seek a new indictment of the mayor.
The new charges are “based on evidence that Adams destroyed and instructed others to destroy evidence and provide false information to the F.B.I., and that would add further factual allegations regarding his participation in a fraudulent straw donor scheme,” the letter stated.
“The law does not support a dismissal, and because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged,” she wrote.
She resigned on Thursday (Feb 12).
Bove, Bondi’s top deputy, expressly promised promotions in a video call for sny prosecutors in the department’s Public Integrity Section who would agree to sign a motion to dismiss the case.
Bove gave the prosecutors one hour to provide him with the names of two attorneys who would sign the motion, according to NBC News.
But that triggered another wave of resignations. So far, seven top prosecutors have quit in protest.
They include Kevin Driscoll, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s criminal division, and John D. Keller, acting chief of the department’s Public Integrity Section, which investigates public officials and election crimes.
U.S Attorney Damian Williams had charged Adams, a Democrat, with wire fraud, bribery and campaign finance violations involving foreign nationals in September while President Biden was still in office.
Prosecutors alleged he had questionable relationships with wealthy foreigners and accepted travel upgrades, luxury hotel rooms and other perks from Turkish business people and at least one government official, according to the department.