Who is Danielle Sassoon, the US attorney who resigned rather than drop charges against Eric Adams?

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Who is Danielle Sassoon, the US attorney who resigned rather than drop charges against Eric Adams?

2025-02-15 02:35 Last Updated At：03:01

NEW YORK (AP) — Danielle Sassoon had served just three weeks as interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York when she penned a letter to recently confirmed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi saying she could not follow a directive to drop the office's corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Sassoon wrote in her letter obtained by The Associated Press that the directive to drop the charges issued by Bove would violate her sworn duty to uphold the law.

The directive, “raises serious concerns that render the contemplated dismissal inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts,” she wrote.

Sassoon did not return a message seeking comment. But in her letter, she alluded to some details of her 10 years of public service that shed light on how she came to the decision to resign and who the now-former federal prosecutor who made headlines for defying the new DOJ is.

Sassoon, 38, graduated from Harvard College in 2008 and from Yale Law School in 2011, according to her biography on the Department of Justice website, which was taken down Thursday.

Sassoon served as a foreign law clerk to Justice Hanan Melcer of the Israel Supreme Court in 2009, according to a biography attached to an essay she wrote while on a legal scholarship in London. Sassoon wrote in an editorial while at Harvard about her grandmother’s journey as a Jewish teenager fleeing persecution from Syria to Lebanon and eventually Italy in 1947.

Sassoon also clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III in the Fourth Circuit in Charlottesville, Virginia, and for late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

In a 2016 tribute to the late justice, who was an outspoken stalwart for the court's conservative wing, Sassoon, a Republican, called Scalia “the real deal.”

“Sometimes, when you peek behind the curtain of power, you suffer a rude awakening. What you find is corruption, ego, or a lack of ideals and intellectual heft. Stepping behind closed doors with Justice Scalia elevated my faith in the judiciary and deepened my love of the law,” she wrote in the tribute posted to the SCOTUS blog.

Sassoon also cited Scalia in her letter objecting to the directive to drop charges against Adams, a Democrat who has curried favor with President Donald Trump's administration partly based on immigration issues.

Sassoon cited her objections to what she called a political “quid pro quo” with Adams' legal team for the mayor to enforce Trump's immigration policies only if he was freed from the looming prosecution. Attorneys for Adams, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, denied any offer or suggestion of a quid pro quo.

After clerking for Scalia, Sassoon was a litigation lawyer and an adjunct law professor at New York University before being hired in 2016 as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. She focused on murder and racketeering cases as part of the Violent and Organized Crime Unit, according to the now-defunct DOJ biography.

She worked on a handful of high-profile cases including the case against Lawrence Ray, who was convicted of trafficking and other offenses after living in his daughter's college dorm room and coercing a group of college students to engage in prostitution. Sassoon also conducted the cross-examination of Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency executive convicted of defrauding customers out of billions of dollars. Both men are appealing their convictions.

The DOJ biography notes she was most recently co-chief of the Criminal Appeals division in the office. It also notes numerous awards from the department in recent years, including the FBI Director's Award in 2024 for Outstanding Criminal Prosecution.

She was appointed as the interim U.S. Attorney for the district on Jan. 21 and had not brought the initial charges against Adams. Those charges were brought by former U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, a Democrat who resigned after Trump won reelection.

After a stunning dayslong standoff, Sassoon’s resignation was accepted in a scathing letter Thursday from acting Attorney General Emil Bove. Bove placed case prosecutors on paid administrative leave and said they and Sassoon would be subject to internal investigations.

It was unclear what agency would do that investigation and what sanctions would be at stake since Sassoon is no longer employed by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Meanwhile, Matthew Podolsky, who has spent a decade in the office, was named the new acting U.S. attorney after Sassoon’s departure. Trump's ultimate pick for the office, Jay Clayton, a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, has not yet been confirmed.

As of Friday afternoon, motions to dismiss the charges against Adams had not been filed and a handful of employees from the department's public integrity section have also left.

Dozens presumed dead and about 100 injured in fire at Swiss Alps bar during New Year's celebration

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — Dozens of people are presumed dead and about 100 injured, most of them seriously, following a fire at a Swiss Alps bar during a New Year’s celebration, police said Thursday.

“Several tens of people” were killed at the bar, Le Constellation, Valais Canton police commander Frédéric Gisler said.

Work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families but “that will take time and for the time being it is premature to give you a more precise figure," Gisler said.

Beatrice Pilloud, attorney general of the Valais Canton, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire. Experts have not yet been able to go inside the wreckage.

“At no moment is there a question of any kind of attack,” Pilloud said.

Officials called the blaze an “embrasement généralisé,” a firefighting term describing how a blaze can trigger the release of combustible gases that can then ignite violently and cause what English-speaking firefighters would call a flashover or a backdraft.

“This evening should have been a moment of celebration and coming together, but it turned into a nightmare,” said Mathias Rénard, head of the regional government.

The injured were so numerous that the intensive care unit and operating theater at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity, Rénard said.

Helicopters and ambulances rushed to the scene to assist victims, including some from different countries, officials said.

“We are devastated,” Frédéric Gisler, commander of the Valais Cantonal police, said during a news conference.

The injured were so numerous that the intensive care unit and operating theater at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity, according to regional councilor Mathias Rénard.

The municipality had banned New Year’s Eve fireworks due to lack of rainfall in the past month, according to its website.

In a region busy with tourists skiing on the slopes, the authorities have called on the local population to show caution in the coming days to avoid any accidents that could require medical resources that are already overwhelmed.

The community is in the heart of the Swiss Alps, just 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the Matterhorn, one of the most famous Alpine peaks, and 130 kilometers (81 miles) south of Zurich.

The highest point of Crans-Montana, with a population of 10,000 residents, sits at an elevation of nearly 3,000 meters (1.86 miles), according to the municipality’s website, which says officials are seeking to move away from a tourist culture and attract high-tech research and development.

The municipality was formed only nine years ago, on Jan. 1, 2017, when multiple towns merged. It extends over 590 hectares (2.3 square miles) from the Rhône Valley to the Plaine Morte glacier.

Crans-Montana is one of the top race venues on the World Cup circuit in Alpine skiing and will host the next world championships over two weeks in February 2027.

In four weeks’ time, the resort will host the best men’s and women’s downhill racers for their last events before going to the Milan Cortina Olympics, which open Feb. 6.

Crans-Montana also is a premium venue in international golf. The Crans-sur-Sierre club stages the European Masters each August on a picturesque course with stunning mountains views.