After the highest public prosecutor of Manhattan had previously resigned, according to the “New York Times”, her Vice Hagan Scotten also submitted his resignation at the Ministry of Justice on Friday. In addition, five employees of the Department of Justice responsible for fighting corruption resigned due to the investigation against Adam. So they had previously refused to drop the indictment against Adams.
Only a “fool” or a “coward” would comply with a request from the Ministry of Justice to drop the case, SCOTTE said in his withdrawal email aimed at Vice-Justice Minister Emil Bove and published by the US media. He sharply criticized the procedure of the US government.
“No free system” could allow the government to “move a chosen civil servant with the sugar bread of the hiring of charges or the whip of the threat to raise them again, to support their political goals,” he wrote in his email. The laws and traditions of the United States did not allow “other citizens, let alone elected representatives to influence the public prosecutor”.
Scotten, who led the investigation against Adams, is a respected veteran of the US Army. The Harvard graduate used to be part of the staff of the conservative top judge on the Supreme Court, John Roberts. With his step, he followed his boss Danielle Sassoon. According to US media, the provisional prosecutor for the southern district of New York had submitted her resignation to US Justice Minister Pam Bondi the day before.
Sassoon, a Republican, had been employed by the new US government as a provisional chief prosecutor because the actual candidate for the office, Jay Clayton, still has to be confirmed by the US Senate.
The chief of staff of the Ministry of Justice, Chad Mizelle, rejected the criticism of the judicial staff to Trump’s government. The decision to drop the indictment against Adams is “another indication” for the fact that the Ministry of Justice will “reflect on its core task”, he said on Friday. This is “the persecution of dangerous criminal and not politically motivated witch hunts”.
“The fact that those who accused and pursued the case refused to follow a direct instruction is further evidence of the disturbed and underpent motives of the prosecutors,” said Mizelle. Such people would “have no place” in the Ministry of Justice.
The order to drop the lawsuit against Adams had come from the incumbent Vice-Justice Minister Emil Bove, a former lawyer of US President Donald Trump. The law enforcement is “excessively restricted in his possibilities to fully devote himself to the procedure against illegal immigration and violent crime,” said Bove.
Adams had been charged with illegal campaign financing, fraud and bribery. In the internal service instruction from BOVE to the responsible public prosecutor, it was said that the law enforcement officers would “instruct to drop the pending charges in the matter united states against Adams”.
Adams was the first reigning mayor of New York against the indictment. In September, he had asserted his innocence before a court in Manhattan and advocated not guilty. Among other things, he is said to have accepted flights in the luxury class, overnight stays in hotels suites and invitations in luxury food restaurants in return for political favors.
The Democrat had approached the Republican Trump in recent months, both of whom had described the trial against him politically motivated. On Thursday, Adams then announced increased cooperation with the new US government in migration policy.
