Drama over Adams case raises questions about Trump administration’s ‘weaponization’ of justice

Call it the Thursday afternoon massacre.

he Justice Department is in crisis after the stunning resignation of the top prosecutor in Manhattan and five other senior officials over the DOJ’s decision to halt the prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams on corruption charges.

It took less than a month for Donald Trump’s new DOJ to be engulfed by a controversy that supercharges concerns the president’s political aims are compromising the application of the law.

The drama — which recalls the Saturday Night Massacre of Watergate fame — represents the most high-profile effort yet by Justice Department officials to push back against Trump’s DOJ leadership, which is tasked with ending the “weaponization” of justice but which critics fear is perpetuating it.

Danielle Sassoon, who quit as the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, laid out stunning allegations of political interference in a letter to new Attorney General Pam Bondi. And she said that the New York City mayor’s attorneys had repeatedly urged a quid pro quo under which Adams would help Trump’s hardline immigration policy if the case were dropped.