Three of the federal prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan who worked on the Eric Adams corruption case decided to resign rather than be forced by Trump’s allies in the Justice Department to concede, under threat of termination, that they erred in refusing to abandon the case.
New York City Mayor Adams, of course, faced bribery and fraud charges for allegedly engaging in a corrupt fundraising scheme before Trump administration officials ordered the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York to see the case dismissed in February. At the time, Trump administration officials claimed that the case was impeding Adams’ ability to work with the Trump administration on its deportation agenda. Several prosecutors resigned or were placed on leave as Trump’s personal attorneys-turned-DOJ heads cast about for someone to execute their demands.
With the three latest resignations, the total number of federal prosecutors who have left over the Trump administration’s effort to shut down this one prosecution in exchange for political leverage now comes to 11, including officials in both the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and Main Justice.
The three prosecutors to resign this week, Celia V. Cohen, Andrew Rohrbach and Derek Wikstrom, were all placed on leave earlier this year after the Trump administration told SDNY to seek a dismissal. In an email sent to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday, which was obtained by the New York Times, the three revealed Blanche told them that, in order to be reinstated, they must admit they erred in refusing to move to dismiss the case.
“It is now clear that one of the preconditions you have placed on our returning to the Office is that we must express regret and admit some wrongdoing by the Office in connection with the refusal to move to dismiss the case,” they wrote. “We will not confess wrongdoing when there was none.”
In their letter to Blanche they said they’ve had the experience of advancing directives and and following DOJ policy under Democratic and Republican presidents. But they were firm in their belief that something has shifted under the second Trump administration.
It’s a theme TPM has been tracking since Day 1 as Trump has installed his closest allies in key positions within Justice Department and FBI leadership positions — allies who have used their positions to enforce and act on Trump’s retribution agenda. The Adams case was an early example of this dangerous and unfolding shift, and the retaliation in store for anyone within the DOJ who would not bend to Trump’s political will.
“Now, the Department has decided that obedience supersedes all else, requiring us to abdicate our legal and ethical obligations in favor of directions from Washington,” they wrote. “There is no greater privilege than to work for an institution whose mandate is to do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons. We will not abandon this principle to keep our jobs. We resign.”
Deadline Set For Congress To Choke Down DOGE
The Trump administration’s sweeping, lawless cuts to already-approved federal funding will soon make their way to Congress via a so-called rescission package that seeks to turn the results of Elon Musk’s extra-legal rampage through parts of the federal government into law.
The Trump administration is reportedly projecting confidence that the measure will easily pass the House and the Senate, though it is unclear if the Susan Collinses and Lisa Murkowskis and even Mitch McConnells of the Senate Republican conference will be on board. (The measure will be able to circumvent the 60-vote threshold usually needed to end debate in the Senate, but will still have to win the bare majority of 50 votes plus the vice presidential tie-breaker.) It’s something TPM will have its eye out for when Congress returns next week.
According to new reporting from Punchbowl, the rescission package — which seeks to force Congress to codify $9.3 billion in backwards DOGE cuts to the State Department, NPR and PBS and more — will get a vote in the House sometime during the week of May 5. That’s coincidentally the same week we’re expecting to get some legislative text on how exactly House Republicans plan to pull off their massive cuts to Medicaid and other social safety net programs like SNAP.
RonJohn The Truther
We learned this week that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) thinks Bush did 9/11, or something like that. Per Politico:
A day after the Wisconsin Republican went on a far-right podcast promoting conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, a spokesperson for Johnson said the lawmaker is currently seeking information and documentation in order to hold hearings on the event nearly 25 years later.
…
In a podcast interview Tuesday with MAGA personality Benny Johnson, Ron Johnson asserted that one of the buildings around the World Trade Center complex in New York was brought down via “a controlled demolition” in the aftermath of the collapse of the twin towers.
Insane Headline
The New Republic: RFK Jr. Set to Launch Disease Registry Tracking Autistic People
Fed Judge Steps In On Voice Of America Purge
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has ordered the Trump administration to bring back the Voice Of America, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Network staff that were placed on administrative leave last month. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth also ordered that the congressionally approved federal funding that DOGE cut last month must be restored for now. The temporary decision comes in response to a lawsuit that was brought by VOA journalists against Kari Lake, who Trump appointed as acting CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
More, per CBS News:
The judge instructed the defendants to take all necessary steps to return the employees and their contractors to their outlets, so they can “provide news which is consistently reliable and authoritative, accurate, objective and comprehensive.”
In Case You Missed It
Trump Administration Takes Defiance In Abrego Garcia Case To A New Level
Right-Wing Justices Lap Up Anti-LGBTQ Arguments In Case On School Board Culture War
Dem Reminds Bukele That In America, Presidents Don’t ‘Last Forever’
The Constitutional Clash Began When Rubio Cut A Deal With Bukele
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Rampin’ Up, Baby! That Thiel Start Up Hunting the Motherlode Contract is Inside Treasury
What We Are Reading
A Venezuelan Is Missing. The U.S. Deported Him. But to Where?
HHS Plans to Cut the National Suicide Hotline’s Program for LGBTQ Youth
Trump administration may pull Covid-19 vaccine recommendation for children
Behold, integrity in the face of suppression!!
This is fucking enraging.
Glad to see the SDNY resignations come in a single letter. This is how to do it, standing together. Now let’s see if law firms and universities can manage something similar.
If we’re going to have registries for psychological problems how about one for narcissistic personality disorders. Can anyone here suggest who should be numero uno on that list?
So they can be more easily rounded up and sent to CECOT?