On Friday, the Department of Justice urged Judge Ho (SDNY) to dismiss the indictment against Eric Adams without prejudice. DOJ has apparently submitted under seal a series of communications to and from unnamed former DOJ officials. Let's just say these emails and letters do not put the officials in the best light. Here, I want to focus on one exchange in particular:
Similarly, prior to making the public claim that only a "coward" or "fool" would sign the Motion, a recently-resigned AUSA from the SDNY prosecution team (AUSA-1) wrote the following regarding the letter that SDNY filed with the Court on January 22, 2025: "[U.S. Attorney-1] obviously has political ambitions, and I think suggesting we doubt that just costs us credibility." . . .
A separate exchange of text messages beginning on November 8, 2024 illustrates why AUSA-1 was later interested in using public filings to send messages to President Trump. Just days after the 2024 election, in response to a text message asking if it was "time" for AUSA-1 to "take a seat on the bench," AUSA-1 responded: "Got to convict Adams before I can think about anything else." Ex. D. . . .
On November 8, 2024, AUSA-1 received a message with the following question: "You think it's time to take a seat on the bench? Lol." Ex. D. AUSA-1's response included, "Got to convict Adams before I can think about anything else." Id. . . .
It is thus apparent from the context that, just as AUSA-1 hoped to convict Mayor Adams as the last notch in his belt before he took a "seat on the bench,"
U.S. Attorney 1 is Damien Williams. AUSA-1 is a Hagan Scotten, whom I wrote about here. I don't think I had ever heard of Scotten before, but he was apparently talked about as as nominee for the Second Circuit.
