Internal messages hint at key reason Trump DOJ dropped case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams

Three weeks ago, the media was consumed by a firestorm that broke retired erstwhile President Donald Trump's acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, resigned successful protestation implicit being ordered to extremity the prosecution of New York Mayor Eric Adams.   

The acceptance of Sassoon’s indignant and nationalist resignation was followed intimately by resignations of respective of her underlings successful New York, arsenic good arsenic lawyers successful the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section successful Washington, each of whom objected to the dismissal the case. The question to disregard was yet filed by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.

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The media extolled the "bravery" of vocation prosecutors who were lasting up to the "corrupt" efforts by the recently installed Trump DOJ officials to reward the wayward Democrat politician for his absorption to Biden medication migration policies. The dismissal of charges was besides alleged to beryllium a reward, oregon quid pro quo, for his post-election committedness to cooperate with Trump administration's efforts to reverse erstwhile President Biden's unfastened borderline policies.

The Biden Justice Department had indicted Adams past September connected a somewhat questionable bribery complaint involving an upgraded formation to Turkey. Because it came aft helium had voiced nationalist disapproval of Biden’s policies connected amerciable immigration, immoderate supporters of Adams deemed it different illustration of the "weaponization" of Biden's DOJ.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams departs Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse successful New York City connected Friday, November 1, 2024. Adams’ lawyers are seeking to person a bribery charge, 1 of the 5 national corruption charges that person been filed against the mayor, dropped. (Adam Gray for Fox News Digital )

DOJ officials (L-R) Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, on with John Lauro seen extracurricular national tribunal successful Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

There are 2 absorbing and chiseled takeaways from the 2 memos. First, the DOJ is wholly close connected the instrumentality and the adjacent implicit discretion that rests with the Executive Branch erstwhile making the determination to wantonness a lawsuit adjacent aft a expansive assemblage indictment is returned. Second, the Blanche memo makes wide that the "weaponization" arguments that were offered arsenic the ground for the dismissal are the taxable of an ongoing probe into some the probe of Adams and the determination to complaint him. This 2nd takeaway is revealed by the information that the memo quotes from immoderate communications among members of the prosecution squad astatine SDNY. It besides requests that afloat substance of those communications beryllium placed nether seal and not beryllium filed connected the nationalist docket. Such a petition indicates an ongoing probe  into the substance is underway.

As for the archetypal takeaway, connected whether the Trump DOJ person the instrumentality connected their broadside successful moving to disregard the case, Clement’s memo makes immoderate strained arguments to suggest a relation for the tribunal successful reviewing motions to dismiss. But helium knew erstwhile helium started that determination is simply a torrent of lawsuit instrumentality that recognizes the astir unchecked discretion vested successful the Executive Branch to marque the pending motion, combined with the realization that determination is nary meaningful mode for a tribunal to compel the Executive Branch to prosecute a lawsuit it is determined to not prosecute. 

The DOJ memo cites dozens of cases that underscore that the last determination connected deciding to disregard a lawsuit rests astir wholly with the Executive Branch. The pursuing are conscionable a sampling of the quotes from antithetic cases – sans the lawsuit names for brevity – included by DOJ successful its Memorandum. 

• "The authorities whitethorn elite to eschew oregon discontinue prosecutions for immoderate of a fig of reasons," including a "change" successful "Justice Department policy." 
• "[A]bsent immoderate grounds of atrocious faith, this Court lacks the authorization to second-guess the Government’s determination seeking dismissal, and indispensable alternatively ascribe the presumption of regularity to the Government." 
• "The rationale down this wide regularisation is that the Executive remains the implicit justice of whether a prosecution should beryllium initiated and the archetypal and presumptively the champion justice of whether a pending prosecution should beryllium terminated." 
• "[T]he ‘leave of court’ authorization successful Rule 48(a) . . . confers nary caller powerfulness successful the courts to scrutinize and countermand the prosecution’s workout of its accepted authorization implicit charging and enforcement decisions." 
• "[I]t is not the relation of the judiciary to reappraisal the workout of enforcement discretion whether it beryllium that of the President himself oregon those to whom helium has delegated definite of his powers."
• There is simply a "presumption of bully religion connected the portion of the Government successful seeking dismissal of charges."  The presumption is dispositive "in the lack of wide grounds to the contrary." 

Still, the Clement memo does effort to carve retired immoderate abstraction for the tribunal to measurement successful connected the decision.   

"… Rule 48(a) provides the tribunal with an important, but limited, relation successful assessing the government’s question to discontinue an ongoing prosecution," it states. "The Rule authorizes the tribunal to see however the prosecution should beryllium discontinued -- with oregon without prejudice -- alternatively than empowering the tribunal to instrumentality implicit the distinctly enforcement prosecutorial function."

Because Adams is an elected nationalist official, Clement does urge that the dismissal beryllium "with prejudice," meaning it cannot beryllium brought again successful the future. This proposal is not anchored to immoderate circumstantial ineligible authorization oregon lawsuit citation – Clement simply suggests that it is prudential to debar the cognition that Adams, portion inactive mayor, mightiness beryllium influenced successful his decision-making by the self-interest of avoiding the refiling of the indictment.   

Contrary to immoderate reporting and societal media commentary, Clement does not scope a decision connected the question of whether the lawsuit was initiated improperly – "weaponized" -- oregon that the motives to disregard the lawsuit are characterized by atrocious religion oregon an improper quid pro quo. What Clement does accidental is that the information some allegations person been aired successful nationalist weighs successful favour of dismissing the lawsuit since either – autarkic of the different – would beryllium a ground for dismissing the indictment with prejudice.

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What these 2 memos underscore much than thing is the cardinal misunderstanding of the instrumentality by the now-resigned ex-prosecutors. The premise of their protestation and aboriginal resignations was that they could not marque a "good faith" statement to the tribunal nether Rule 48(a) that would warrant dismissing the indictment. They did not admit that different enforcement priorities of the caller Trump medication mightiness outweigh their self-righteous pursuit of the politician the respect arsenic a scoundrel.

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But much significantly, they did not recognize that each determination to prosecute oregon not prosecute is simply a trade-off against competing interests that are successful play. They mistakenly – and naively – believed that an initiated prosecution based connected capable grounds indispensable beryllium taken to its conclusion, and that immoderate determination to bash different based connected competing argumentation considerations indispensable beryllium "corrupt."

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