UPDATE (February 14, 2025, 12:13 p.m. ET): This article has been revised to include the resignation of Hagan Scotten, raising the total number of prosecutorial resignations to seven.
Mass resignations among top federal prosecutors are exceedingly uncommon. The most notable instance in recent American history is the “Saturday Night Massacre,” which occurred when Richard Nixon attempted to remove special prosecutor Archibald Cox, ultimately leading to Nixon’s resignation in disgrace.
Now, decades later, the public is witnessing what some are calling “the Thursday afternoon massacre.” NBC News reported:
The chief federal prosecutor in New York and two senior prosecutors in Washington have resigned after refusing to comply with a Justice Department directive to dismiss corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, according to multiple officials. These resignations represent a significant public challenge to the Trump administration’s new Justice Department leadership in one of the nation’s most high-profile criminal cases.
As of now, at least six prosecutors, including the acting U.S. attorney for Manhattan, have resigned in response to this week’s Justice Department order regarding the Adams case.
To understand the situation better, let’s recap the events leading up to this point.
Last fall, federal prosecutors indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams on corruption charges. Following the indictment, Adams made overtures to align himself with Donald Trump and his administration, maintaining his not guilty plea.
This strategy seemed effective: Earlier this week, acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who previously served as a defense attorney for Trump, ordered federal prosecutors in New York to dismiss the corruption charges against Adams. While such dismissals can occur due to concerns about the case’s merits or evidence reliability, Bove suggested that Adams’ cooperation with the Trump administration on immigration and crime policy warranted dropping the charges.
This raised serious concerns about the potential for political influence over legal proceedings.
Moreover, while the order called for the charges against Adams to be dismissed, it also stated that those charges could be refiled in the future. This left Adams in a vulnerable position, as he likely recognized that failing to appease his new allies in the Trump administration could result in the revival of the indictment against him.
In this context, Adams also met with Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, and agreed to grant immigration officials access to the Rikers Island jail complex, despite local laws that seemed to prohibit such actions.
The situation surrounding the prosecutors is equally significant. As <a href="httpsTomado de https://feeds.nbcnews.com/msnbc/public/news
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