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u.s. department of justice
'Disgraceful': Trump DOJ Guts Unit That Targets Corruption by Public Officials
The president, said one expert, "is for corruption and is undermining any federal efforts to combat it."
Mar 12, 2025
Weeks after the Trump administration pressured the U.S. government's top anti-corruption prosecutors to drop charges of bribery and other federal crimes against New York Mayor Eric Adams, the Public Integrity Section at the Department of Justice is set to be almost entirely dismantled.
As NBC Newsreported late Tuesday, the office tasked with investigating and prosecuting allegations of corruption by elected officials will soon be disbanded, with only a few Public Integrity Section employees remaining and the unit no longer directly handling investigations and corruption cases.
Prosecutors will be reassigned elsewhere in the DOJ and pending cases will be moved to U.S. attorneys' offices across the country—signaling that partisan political appointees instead of civil servants who have worked under both Republican and Democratic presidents will now oversee corruption cases.
The move was denounced as "disgraceful" by political scientist Norman Ornstein and as evidence that President Donald Trump is "for corruption" by Noah Bookbinder, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
Last month, several officials resigned from the Public Integrity Section after objecting to what they said was a proposed "quid pro quo" under which Adams would assist with the Trump administration's mass deportation efforts if charges against him were dropped.
Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, gathered the unit's attorneys and pushed them to sign a filing asking for the charges to be dismissed. Edward Sullivan, a senior litigation counsel, signed the filing to save his colleagues' jobs.
The Public Integrity Section, which also oversees election-related crimes and campaign finance offenses, has prosecuted both Democratic officials, including former Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and Republicans such as former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Trump has claimed the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden conducted politically motivated investigations into his handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results—even though the cases were handed over to Special Counsel Jack Smith when Trump announced his 2024 campaign.
Now Trump's dismantling of the anti-corruption unit, former DOJ counterintelligence official David Laufman toldNBC, raises "serious questions about whether future investigations and prosecutions will be motivated by improper partisan considerations."
"The only reasonable interpretation of this extraordinary action," said Laufman, "is that the administration wants to transfer responsibility for public corruption cases from career attorneys at Main Justice to political appointees heading U.S. attorneys' offices."
Prosecutors will be reassigned elsewhere in the DOJ and pending cases will be moved to U.S. attorneys' offices across the country—signaling that partisan political appointees instead of civil servants who have worked under both Republican and Democratic presidents will now oversee corruption cases.
The move was denounced as "disgraceful" by political scientist Norman Ornstein and as evidence that President Donald Trump is "for corruption" by Noah Bookbinder, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
Last month, several officials resigned from the Public Integrity Section after objecting to what they said was a proposed "quid pro quo" under which Adams would assist with the Trump administration's mass deportation efforts if charges against him were dropped.
Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, gathered the unit's attorneys and pushed them to sign a filing asking for the charges to be dismissed. Edward Sullivan, a senior litigation counsel, signed the filing to save his colleagues' jobs.
The Public Integrity Section, which also oversees election-related crimes and campaign finance offenses, has prosecuted both Democratic officials, including former Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and Republicans such as former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Trump has claimed the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden conducted politically motivated investigations into his handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results—even though the cases were handed over to Special Counsel Jack Smith when Trump announced his 2024 campaign.
Now Trump's dismantling of the anti-corruption unit, former DOJ counterintelligence official David Laufman toldNBC, raises "serious questions about whether future investigations and prosecutions will be motivated by improper partisan considerations."
"The only reasonable interpretation of this extraordinary action," said Laufman, "is that the administration wants to transfer responsibility for public corruption cases from career attorneys at Main Justice to political appointees heading U.S. attorneys' offices."
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House Dems Push Trump AG for Answers on 'Illegal Quid Pro Quo' With Eric Adams
"The DOJ has strayed far from its principles of equal justice under the law by dismissing a serious criminal public corruption matter in exchange for assistance with the White House's immigration priorities."
Mar 03, 2025
Senior House Democrats on Monday demanded that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi hand over information about the Trump administration's "lawless order that federal prosecutors move to dismiss the public corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams as part of a corrupt bargain to buy the mayor's obedience in immigration enforcement."
Calling on Bondi to "immediately end the cover-ups and retaliations within the Department of Justice (DOJ)," House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and House Oversight Subcommittee Ranking Member Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) wrote in a letter to the attorney general:
Last month, troubling reports emerged about the Trump administration's demand that federal prosecutors move to dismiss the serious public corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams as part of a blatant and illegal quid pro quo to secure the mayor's loyal assistance in executing the Trump administration's mass arrest and deportation policies. Not only did the Department of Justice attempt to pressure career prosecutors into carrying out this illegal quid pro quo, it appears that acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove was personally engaged in a cover-up by destroying evidence and retaliating against career prosecutors who refused to follow his illegal and unethical orders.
Adams had faced five federal felony charges including alleged wire fraud, bribery, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. According to a September 2024 indictment, the Democrat "sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him" as it became clear in 2021 that he would be elected.
On February 14, Trump's DOJ formally moved to drop the charges against Adams without prejudice, meaning they could be brought again. This prompted the resignation of seven federal prosecutors, and, on February 17, four of Adams' eight deputy mayors.
Raskin's office said Monday that federal prosecutors' resignation letters, "including those by Danielle Sassoon, a staunch conservative, former law clerk to [U.S. Supreme Court] Justice Antonin Scalia, and Trump's interim United States attorney for [the Southern District of New York], and Hagan Scotten, a former law clerk to both [Supreme Court] Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, revealed a stunning account of a corrupt bargain the DOJ struck with Mayor Adams, as well as an attempted cover-up."
Sassoon described a January 31 meeting she and colleagues attended with Bove at which "Adams' attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the [DOJ's] enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed," and added that 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."
Subsequently, Adams reportedly told New York City officials to refrain from criticizing Trump. After meeting with Trump "border czar" Tom Homan, Adams on February 13 announced an executive order to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to operate at Rikers Island, New York City's largest jail, for the first time in decades.
The following day Adams and Homan appeared together on Fox News. Although the two men were seen laughing it up, Homan said that if the mayor didn't "come through" for the Trump administration, "we won't be sitting on this couch, I'll be in his office, up his butt, saying, where the hell is the agreement we came to?"
Thinly veiled Homan warning to Adams: “If he doesn’t come through … I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, Where the hell is the agreement we came to” pic.twitter.com/Pq0msJXZGb
— Emily Ngo (@emilyngo) February 14, 2025
Raskin and Crockett are seeking all notes related to the January 31 meeting, all communications between the White House and DOJ regarding the Adams case, and other information.
"For our justice system to function, 'legal judgments of the Department of Justice must be impartial and insulated from political influence,'" the lawmakers asserted. "As Ms. Sassoon said in her letter, our system depends on prosecutors pursuing justice 'without favor to the wealthy or those who occupy important public office.' Here, the DOJ has strayed far from its principles of equal justice under the law by dismissing a serious criminal public corruption matter in exchange for assistance with the White House's immigration priorities."
"Unfortunately, this is yet another example of the Trump DOJ allowing criminals to go free—whether they assaulted police officers, sold drugs to the community, or are corrupt politicians—as long as the criminals pledge loyalty to President Trump," the pair added.
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'Profiles in Courage': Four NYC Deputy Mayors to Resign Over Eric Adams' Quid Pro Quo With Trump
"With the resignation of deputy mayors, it has become clear that Mayor Adams has now lost the confidence and trust of his own staff, his colleagues in government, and New Yorkers."
Feb 17, 2025
As news broke Monday that four of New York City Mayor Eric Adams' top deputies plan to resign over the alleged deal Adams made with the Trump administration in order to get his corruption case dismissed, calls mounted for the mayor to end the chaos by stepping down.
First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer was joined by Meera Joshi and Anne Williams-Isom, who oversee operations and health and human services in the city of more than 8 million people, in a joint statement to their staff Monday announcing that they would step down "due to the extraordinary events of the last few weeks and to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families."
Deputy Mayor Chauncey Parker, who oversees public safety and had been involved in the mayors' plans to cooperate with President Donald Trump's deportation agenda, also announced he would resign. There are eight deputy mayors in all who help manage the city's services.
The resignations by the four deputy mayors come just days after Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced her own resignation after U.S. Justice Department officials pressured federal prosecutors to dismiss their indictment of Adams, a Democrat.
The mayor was indicted on charges of bribery, campaign finance violations, and conspiracy offenses last year, with prosecutors accusing him of taking bribes from foreign nationals.
Sassoon wrote in her resignation letter that "Adams' attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with department's [immigration] enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed."
She said he had plainly offered the Trump administration "immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case."
President Donald Trump and his border czar, Thomas Homan, have launched a deportation operation in cities across the country, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement having arrested more than 8,700 people—many of whom had only committed the civil offense of being in the country without the proper documentation.
On Monday, Georgetown University law professor and former ACLU national legal director David Cole said the four deputy mayors were "profiles in courage" for their decision to leave the Adams administration.
Several New York officials said the mass exodus of half of the mayor's top deputies would be calamitous for the government of the country's largest city, and called for the mayor's prompt resignation—or removal.
City Comptroller Brad Lander said he would convene an "Inability Committee" to force Adams out of City Hall, unless he can "provide a contingency plan to the 8 million New Yorkers who rely on city services to function."
City Council member Shahana Hanif called the mass resignation a "clear bellwether" and said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul should take action to remove Adams from office.
The loss of the deputy mayors "would be an unmitigated disaster for the city of New York and everyone in it," said U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who represents constituents in Queens and The Bronx. "Adams' coercion under Trump risks significant, long-term harm to the people of New York. We cannot afford it. A [hollowed-out] city government is one emergency away from disaster."
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