President Donald Trump's Justice Department sent a "rotten message" this week which left the conservative Wall Street Journal asking, "Really?"
The board weighed in Friday afternoon on what has been called by legal experts a "cascading scandal" after acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove clashed with prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
Bove ordered the prosecutors to drop criminal corruption charges without prejudice against New York Mayor Eric Adams, blasting the case as political and saying Adams is needed to help enforce Trump's immigration policy.
Acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon sent a memo to newly minted Attorney General Pam Bondi asked to meet about the case, vehemently opposing the order — likening it to a quid pro quo — and threatening to resign if the meeting didn't happen.
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"This is how a public official is supposed to behave when disagreeing on policy or ethical principle. If you can’t in good conscience follow instructions, you should offer to resign so your bosses can do what they want," noted the Journal's board.
While the board believes Trump has the right to order a prosecution dismissed, it said, "That’s where this should have ended."
"But Mr. Bove didn’t leave it there," the Board said. "He responded with a blistering letter to Ms. Sassoon that threatened her career and those of assistant U.S. Attorneys who worked on the Adams case."
Indeed, Bove called out Sassoon for what he called "insubordination" and said she forgot her oath.
"The [assistant U.S. Attorneys] principally responsible for this case are being placed on off-duty, administrative leave pending investigations by the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of Professional Responsibility, both of which will also evaluate your conduct," Bove wrote.
"An investigation because she resigned on principle? Really?" chided the Journal board, which later said, "None of this reflects well on the Bondi Justice Department."
Rather than take the meeting, she "passed the buck" — and "that deputy then showed awful political judgment in a scorched-earth letter that turned an internal debate into a damaging spectacle."
The journal warned Trump that his belief in a "unitary executive" is undermined by questions that "there is no check on corruption."
"Worse is the lesson for Administration lawyers. The message is that rather than exercise individual legal judgment, they’d simply better salute without cavil—or else the Administration will ruin their reputations," the Journal railed.