Three federal prosecutors from Manhattan have resigned in protest over the corruption case against Democrat Mayor Eric Adams.
They say they quit because of alleged pressure from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to express remorse for pursuing the corruption case against Adams.
Celia Cohen, Andrew Rohrbach, and Derek Wikstrom all accused DOJ Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche of trying to get them to lie and “express regret” to re-establish their employment in relation to the case.
Their case accused Adams of accepting bribes from Turks in exchange for travel perks, the New York Post reported.
The prosecutors had been placed on “administrative leave” until they quit this week.
“We will not confess wrongdoing when there was none,” the three prosecutors wrote in a scathing one-page letter obtained by The Post.
The DOJ under President Donald Trump “has decided that obedience supersedes all else, requiring us to abdicate our legal and ethical obligations in favor of directions from Washington,” the prosecutors claimed.
Dale Ho, the judge presiding over Adams’ case, recently ruled that the prosecutors involved were only acting within the bounds of legality, which led to the departures.
“The record before the Court indicates that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York prosecutors who worked on this case followed all appropriate Justice Department guidelines,” the judge wrote.
“There is no evidence — zero — that they had any improper motives.”
During their time working for the SDNY office, Rohrbach, Cohen, and Wikstrom mentioned that they had experience working under both Republican and Democrat presidents.
The office is responsible for supervising high-profile trials, such as the Sean “Diddy” Combs case.
According to the outgoing employees, they’d been allowed to do their jobs “without fear or favor.”
Both Rohrbach and Cohen were heavily involved in the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was a client of Jeffrey Epstein, and Cohen was in charge of a number of local mob prosecutions.
The resignations occurred on the very first day that Jay Clayton, who was appointed by Trump to serve as an interim leader of SDNY, assumed office.
The DOJ’s February campaign to dismiss Adams’ case led to the resignation of five SDNY prosecutors.
In her resignation letter, the then-interim head of the SDNY, Danielle Sassoon, accused the White House of arranging a corrupt “quid pro quo” arrangement in which Adams consented to meet Trump’s demands over immigration policy in return for the dismissal of his case.
Hagan Scotten, who was the primary prosecutor in the Adams case, has also stepped down.
Danielle Sassoon was part of the turnover, tendering her resignation in February in protest of the DOJ’s order to drop corruption charges against Adams. Because of that change, Matthew Podolsky agreed to step down and took over for Sassoon.
Following Trump’s firing of Edward Kim, who had served as U.S. attorney throughout the transition in administrations, Sassoon was appointed to the position.
Until federal judges in Manhattan confirm or appoint him, Trump’s choice, Jay Clayton, will serve as an interim for a maximum of four months.
Throughout Trump’s inaugural year in office, Clayton oversaw the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Before becoming head of the SEC, Clayton advised Wall Street firms and other corporations on complying with federal regulations while working as a partner at the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.
READ MORE – NYC Mayor Eric Adams Dumps Democratic Party, Will Run for Re-Election as Independent
