The Free Press Shreds Trump’s ‘Shocking’ Interventions at DOJ: ‘What’s Happening in New York Is Alarming’
AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
Bari Weiss’s The Free Press published a scathing editorial on Friday slamming the Trump administration for its “shocking” interventions at the Department of Justice, which led to Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon resigning this week.
Sassoon resigned after the Trump administration ordered that the charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) be dropped. Sassoon slammed the decision as part of a “quid pro quo” by Trump to extort Adams and ensure loyalty to his agenda.
“Rather than be rewarded, Adams’s advocacy should be called out for what it is: an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case,” Sassoon wrote in her resignation letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Sassoon, a lifelong Republican and former clerk for late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, argued that “dismissing the case” against Adams would “amplify, rather than abate, concerns about weaponization of the Department.”
The editors of the Free Press praised Sassoon, calling her the “very rare exception” of a leader willing to show moral courage in a time of cowardly behavior. The editorial also lauded Sassoon for clearly laying out the issue at hand:
The story Sassoon tells is straightforward. There appears to have been an agreement between Mayor Adams’ counsel and the Trump administration for the DOJ to drop the case against him in exchange for Adams’ cooperation with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement priorities. Private benefit for public goods. There’s a word for that: corruption.
The Free Press went on to note that “Sassoon is no leftist/deep stater” and argued that the values she learned from Justice Scalia are what now force her to stand up to the Trump administration. The editorial expounds on the stakes of what is happening in New York:
The scope and nature of the interventions of the Trump Justice Department are shocking, and it appears those involved may have to answer for new offenses beyond the corruption charges. In a footnote, Sassoon reports that “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. Mr. Bove admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting’s conclusion.”
The editorial ends by noting that “the officials overseeing the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, Kevin O. Driscoll and John Keller, also resigned Thursday” as a result of the Trump administration moves.
“What’s happening in New York is alarming. If you voted for Donald Trump because you wanted to ‘end the witch hunts’ and ‘restore the rule of law’—causes we passionately support—all of this should concern you,” concludes the editorial, ominously.
