DOJ Enters The Darkest Period In Its Long History
INSIDE: Danielle Sassoon ... Emil Bove ... Pam Bondi
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Worse Than The Saturday Night Massacre
The mass resignations at the Justice Department mark the most serious crisis in its history, a darker moment than its previous low point during Watergate.
By this point, you know the gist of what happened. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York resigned Thursday afternoon rather than follow an order from Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to drop the criminal case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams. Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the case was kicked back to Main Justice to do the dirty work of dismissing the Adams case, but at least five senior attorneys also resigned rather than participating in the nakedly political scheme.
I’d argue that yesterday’s Valentine’s Eve Massacre is worse than 1973’s Saturday Night Massacre not out of some prurient obsession with ranking political scandals but as a way of highlighting the seriousness of what is happening right now.
Unlike the Saturday Night Massacre, when the top officials at the Justice Department held the line and resigned rather than carry out President Nixon’s corrupt order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, here the higher-ups have acquiesced to and are furthering the corrupt scheme. This time, the resignations are coming from lower down in the chain of command because Bondi and Bove are doing President Trump’s bidding rather than holding the line to in defense of the law, DOJ guidelines, and their own ethical obligations as lawyers.
All of this is happening in the broader context of political purges at DOJ and FBI even as Bondi and the White House tear down the walls meant to protect the Justice Department from improper political influence. The bad things are all happening, and they’re happening now.
Who Resigned
Danielle R. Sassoon, 38, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, a career prosecutor who has been with the office since 2016. She has sterling credentials: Harvard undergrad, Yale law, and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. She is a Federalist Society member who was named to the acting role just last month by the Trump administration to fill the post until Jay Clayton is confirmed.
Kevin Driscoll, the acting head of the department’s Criminal Division who previously had been in the Public Integrity Section;
John Keller, the acting head of the Public Integrity Section;
Rob Heberle, a prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section;
Jenn Clarke, a prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section;
Marco Palmieri, a prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section.
The Thuggery
Bove’s letter responding to Sassoon’s resignation is as dastardly and villainous as anything I’ve ever seen come out of the Justice Department. It’s comic book villain material. Among the snarling remarks and acts of retaliation:
Bove put on administrative leave at least two other line prosecutors in the U.S. attorneys office in Manhattan who had worked the Adams case, claiming without basis that the entire prosecution was politically motivated (improbably by a Democratic president against a Democratic mayor in a Democratic city).
Bove threatened Sassoon and the line prosecutors with internal investigation, by both the attorney general’s bogus “weaponization” group and the Office of Professional Responsibility.
Bove suggested that Sassoon’s oath to uphold the Constitution was superseded by “the policies of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General.
In her letter, Sassoon had revealed: (i) Bove cut her out of his negotiations with Adams’ lawyers of what she alleged was a quid pro quo arrangement; (ii) scotched one of the prosecutors from taking notes of the meeting with Adams’ lawyers; (iii) made his decision to drop the case despite knowing that a superseding indictment was in the works to add additional obstruction charges against Adams.
MUST READ: The Dueling DOJ Letters
Feb. 12: Danielle Sassoon’s letter to Bondi
Feb. 13: Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s response letter to Sassoon
The Other DOJ Travesty
In another flagrant disregard of the law, Attorney General Pam Bondi gave an affirmative green light to Google and Apple to ignore the plain language of the statutory TikTok ban upheld by the Supreme Court.
Emil Bove’s Dirty Secret: He Investigated Jan. 6
Former co-workers from Emil Bove’s brief time as an aggressive investigator of Jan. 6 spill the tea.
TPM Exclusive
TPM’s Josh Kovensky on the judicial branch scrambling to limit the spillover effects from Trump’s executive branch rampage on its own operations.
Will The Courts Stand Firm Against Trump Lawlessness?
Among the at least 70 lawsuits against the Trump administration and 14 court orders blocking executive actions, we’re tracking the most important rulings:
USAID: In the first USAID case, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols extended his order blocking the Trump administration from pulling workers worldwide off the job.
USAID: In a second USAID case, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ordered an end to the spending freeze.
Trans Care: U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson of Maryland blocked Trump’s executive order banning the federal government from offering gender-affirming care for trans kids.
The Purges
Government-wide: Some 200,000 government workers on probationary status are being purged.
CFPB: Dozens of workers fired in after-hours blitz.
CFPB: Acting head Russell Vought established a “tip line” to snitch on financial regulators who are still doing their jobs despite a White House “stand down” order.
U.S. Forest Service: Some 3,400 federal employees still within their probationary period purged across every level of the agency beginning yesterday.
Trump II Clown Show
The Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was the sole Republican to vote no.
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Kash Patel‘s nomination as FBI director despite his potential perjury problem.
The Corruption
WSJ: How the Trumps Turned an Election Victory Into a Cash Bonanza
‘You’ve Blown a Hole in the Family’
The NYT goes inside Rupert Murdoch’s succession drama after obtaining some 3,000 documents from a court case in Nevada.
Quote Of The Day
“Hegseth is going to be a great defense secretary, although he wasn’t my choice for the job. But he made a rookie mistake in Brussels and he’s walked back some of what he said but not that line. I don’t know who wrote the speech — it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool.”–Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), lamenting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s remarks taking NATO membership for Ukraine off the table and saying it cannot return to its pre-2014 borders
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Enjoy your long weekend. Morning Memo will be back Tuesday.
Want better media? Support a better media company!
TPM is reader-funded, unionized, and mission-driven. Read our mission.
Thank you for the music, David. Really lovely.
May the people who know and love you stand close by.
Not unrelated to the DOJ chaos: I alerted the doctors at the "YLE" Platform, that's "Your Local Epdidemiologist" to a Measles Outbreak in Gaines County, Texas,.
Twenty-four (24) infections so far on RFK Junior's 1st day on the Job. Substack Inc. deleted my Alert on a Platform this morning.