Trump's DOJ sent a 'chilling and unmistakable' message: ex-prosecutor

President Donald Trump's move to dismiss federal public corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams is a deeply corrupt-looking maneuver, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday.

And it sent an ominous message.

"So there were a lot of concerns that the original case against Mayor Adams was dropped for political reasons," said Tapper. "And let's be frank here, it's not just about their desire for him to carry out the anti-illegal immigration agenda in New York. Mayor Adams has been very explicitly wooing Donald Trump. And now multiple resignations are linked to this decision from the Justice Department. Do you think the actions of [top DOJ official] Emil Bove are over the line?"

"One hundred percent I think they're over the line. I think they're political and I think they're wrong," said Honig. "And, Jake, as you said, Eric Adams has been angling for this type of treatment."

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"We thought maybe it would be a pardon for months now," Honig continued. "I will tell you in the SDNY circles that I sort of dwell in, people have been rolling their eyes at this for a long time, saying, oh, he's definitely going to get out of this somehow. He'll get a pardon. But the way this all happened makes it even worse. The fact that Emil Bove instructed SDNY to do it. And by the way, when Danielle Sassoon refused to do it — and you're right, by the way, to note that she's a conservative. Not only was she a Federalist Society member, she penned an op-ed against Joe Biden a few weeks ago, just sort of gratuitously criticizing Joe Biden's pardons."

"But when Bove told her to do this, to dismiss the case, and when Danielle Sassoon refused, this part is really chilling to me, Emil Bove then fired back with a letter ... that said, fine, everyone around you is going to be put on administrative leave too, and now we're going to investigate you not criminally, but through our inspector general, which is the in-house ethics watchdog," said Honig. "So that is sending an unmistakable and, I think, chilling message, which is get on board with the political agenda here or be punished."

"And it's amazing because she was prosecuting an allegedly corrupt Democrat who is kissing up to Trump," added Tapper. "It's really remarkable. You couldn't write this. If you put this in a screenplay, people would be like, that's too broad, that would never happen."

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