MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Lashes Out At Trump — Praises ‘Most Significant Act Of Principled Defiance’ By Adams Prosecutors

MSNBC host Chris Hayes lashed out at President Donald Trump over the decision to drop the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and praised the resignations it sparked as the “most significant act of principled defiance” since Trump took office three weeks ago.

Acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon resigned Thursday in a blistering letter rather than follow an order to drop the Adams case by Trump Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove. Acting department heads Kevin Driscoll and John Keller and three other DOJ public integrity prosecutors resigned when the case was kicked over to them in turn for disposal.

Adams was indicted in September on corruption charges, but Bove issued a memo this week directing the U.S. Attorney to drop the case.

On Thursday night’s edition of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, the host torched Trump and his administration, and lauded the resignations as heroic:

CHRIS HAYES: Good evening from New York. I’m Chris Hayes.

Today we are seeing the most significant act of principled defiance against Donald Trump’s lawlessness since he retook the Oval Office.

It all kicked off when Donald Trump’s own acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District — appointed by Trump for New York — resigned after less than just a month on the job.

Her name is Danielle Sassoon. You see her there? She stepped down this afternoon after Trump’s Department of Justice ordered her to drop the federal government’s corruption case against New York City’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, something she refused to do.

And to be clear about the context here, Sassoon is not a what you would call a resistance liberal. She was appointed by Donald Trump three weeks ago. She was a member of the right wing legal organization, the Federalist Society. She clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the fathers of modern conservative legal thought.

But today, Sassoon put her loyalty to the rule of law ahead of her ideological affiliations. In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sassoon said in no uncertain terms that the deal to halt Adams’ prosecution with the possibility of reviving the charges at some future date was part of a backdoor deal to get Adams to support Trump’s immigration crackdown in New York.

Sassoon recalls a meeting with the acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, and the mayor’s lawyers. Right, everyone in the room. And here I quote from Sassoon’s lawyer letter.

“Adams’ attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed,” adding “rather than be rewarded, Adams’ advocacy should be called out for what it is: an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case.”

Now, a lawyer for Mayor Adams denies those allegations, saying in part, “The idea that there was a quid pro quo is a total lie. We offered nothing and the department asked nothing of us.”

But I got to say, that’s complicated. By the letter that Emil Bove himself sent to Sassoon back on Monday, which we covered on the show, in which he ordered her to drop the charges explicitly so that Adams can more effectively enforce Trump’s immigration policy.

Because, as Bove argues, “the pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration.”

Crime, by the way, is down in New York considerably over the last few years.

Now, realizing the optics here, right, of putting this to paper, Bove then hastily added one of the most incredible footnotes I’ve ever seen in a government document. After laying out like “We want you to pause the prosecution so the mayor can help us on immigration,” he then added a footnote, just to be clear that there was nothing untoward going on.

“As Mr. Bove clearly stated to defense counsel during our meeting, the government is not offering to exchange dismissal of a criminal case for Adams’ assistance on immigration enforcement.”.

No, obviously, that’s not what they’re doing right?

Watch above via MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes.