Useful information
Prime News delivers timely, accurate news and insights on global events, politics, business, and technology
The main federal prosecutor in Manhattan resigned after the Department of Justice ordered him to withdraw corruption charges against the mayor of New York City.
A spokesman for the United States Prosecutor for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) confirmed Danielle Sassoon’s resignation on Thursday.
It occurs four days after the interim deputy attorney general Emil Bove sent a memorandum to Sassoon ordering him to leave the case against the mayor of New York, Eric Adams. Prosecutors in the Sassoon office have not yet presented a formal motion that seeks to dismiss the case.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Adams, a former police captain, is accused of taking illegal campaign contributions and bribes of foreign citizens, including luxurious trips abroad. It faces the conspiracy, the charges of fraud and bribery in an accusation of five positions that swore last September.
Adams, a Democrat who has forged ties with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, declared himself innocent.
The South District, known for bringing high profile cases in financial crimes, public corruption and national security, has been known for its independence from the Department of Justice in Washington.
It was not clear immediately who would take Sassoon’s place.
Look | Breaking Adams’s accusation: 
The Mayor of New York City and the former New York Police officer, Eric Adams, has been accused of five federal positions related to accusations that he took illegal campaign contributions and bribes of foreign citizens in exchange for favors.
A half dozen former SDNY prosecutors told Reuters that Bove’s order, himself, a former SDNY prosecutor who also served as Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer, asked questions about whether the office can remain independent of the political pressure during the second mandate of Trump’s White House.
In his memo, Bove said that the decision to leave the case had nothing to do with his merits. Instead, he wrote that the case distracted Adams to help Trump take energetic measures against illegal immigration, one of the main priorities of the Republican President.
Trump has reviewed the Department of Justice to end what he calls his weapon weapon against political opponents during the administration of former Democratic President Joe Biden, but that critics say they threaten to submit the department to the political whims.
