صاحب‌خبر - Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, moving with ruthless efficiency last week to dismiss the corruption case against New York mayor Eric Adams appeared to reflect the new praxis at the justice department where Trump’s political agenda will guide prosecutorial decisions. The department filed the motion to dismiss on Friday with the signatures of Bove and two trial attorneys – the public integrity section’s senior litigation counsel Edward Sullivan and the acting head of the criminal division Antoinette Bacon – that cemented the decision. While the presiding US district judge Dale Ho has ordered an evidentiary hearing to examine the circumstances under which the charges were withdrawn, including the protest resignation of the acting US attorney in Manhattan, the case is widely seen as over in practical terms. The move to force through the dismissal showed the new course that Bove is chartering as the justice department’s number two official, implementing Donald Trump’s vision of the unitary executive theory, where the president directs the decisions of every agency. Trump nominates January 6 activist to serve as top DC prosecutor Read more In ordering the case be dropped, Bove wrote that “continuing these proceedings would interfere with the defendant’s ability to govern in New York City, which poses unacceptable threats to public safety, national security and related federal immigration initiatives and policies” to deport undocumented immigrants. The memo made clear that aiding a mayor who wanted to help with the immigration crackdown, a national priority, outweighed continuing to bring bribery charges against a local mayor, and the justice department going forward will balance policy priorities against the merits of a case. And Bove’s effort to press forward with the dismissal also reflected his determination to bring the justice department to heel after weathering resignations in protest from seven prosecutors that appeared to verge on insubordination, according to people familiar with the situation. The attempt by Danielle Sassoon, the acting US attorney for the southern district of New York, to slow-walk and refuse to drop the Adams case was seen as likely to upend the hierarchy of the department, where the US attorney’s offices ultimately report to main justice in Washington. Bove’s relentless approach to running the day-to-day operations of the department before Trump’s pick for deputy attorney general Todd Blanche is confirmed by the Senate has drawn support from Trump personally, according to a senior administration official. View image in fullscreen Danielle Sassoon, assistant US attorney for the southern district of New York. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images Trump barely blinked at the resignations and the White House more broadly has been quietly pleased because it means they can fill some senior positions at the justice department with loyalists without going through the trouble of more dismissals that could be challenged in court. The justice department did not respond to a request to comment. The generally soft-spoken Bove, a former co-chief of the national security and international narcotics section at the US attorney’s office in Manhattan, appeared sympathetic to Sassoon’s desire to continue the case she had brought, two people familiar with the conversations said. Bove himself has been no stranger to having to dismiss charges: he was once forced to pull the case against an Iranian banker, Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, after defense lawyers accused prosecutors under his supervision of withholding exculpatory evidence. Bove was not accused of misconduct. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Fighting Back Free newsletter Big thinkers on what we can do to protect civil liberties and fundamental freedoms in a Trump presidency. From our opinion desk. Enter your email address Sign upPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion In at least one phone call before Bove formally moved to order the dismissal, Sassoon was told the case was going to be reviewed by Trump’s political appointees once they were confirmed by the Senate and that she should drop the charges “without prejudice” in the chance that she was allowed to bring it back post-review. But after Bove sent his instructions on Monday, Sassoon took no action. After nothing happened on Tuesday, Bove and the justice department’s chief of staff Chad Mizelle convened a call, telling Sassoon she needed to file the motion to dismiss by the close of business that day, the people said. Bove saw that Sassoon had no intention of complying when there had still been no action on Wednesday and stopped taking calls. In the end, the action Sassoon did take was to write a scathing eight-page letter to the attorney general Pam Bondi, imploring her to allow the Adams case to continue. The next steps occurred in quick succession: Bove wrote back to Sassoon, saying her resignation was accepted and her deputies were also suspended for insubordination, before transferring control of the case to the public integrity section at the justice department in Washington. After the acting head of the criminal division Kevin Driscoll, the acting head of the public integrity section John Keller and three deputies resigned, followed by the additional resignation of Sassoon deputy Hagan Scotten who criticized the “without prejudice” dismissal as a way to hold a sword of Damocles over Adams, Bove moved to the next rung down. On Friday morning, Bove summoned the roughly 20 prosecutors in the public integrity section for a 9.45am video call. He told them that it had been a long week and that he wanted all of them to be able to move on, according to two people who were on the call. He told them he didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, the people said, so he didn’t want to know who was opposed to signing the motion to dismiss – just that he needed two trial attorneys to attach their names because that was standard practice and because it was easier to have a team than being alone. Within the hour deadline he gave the public integrity section, the team’s senior litigation counsel Edward Sullivan agreed to volunteer to take the heat off his colleagues. Bove added his own name to the motion as well because he was prepared to argue in court himself if necessary, according to a person briefed on the matter.∎​