CNN senior authorized analyst Elie Honig is excoriating the U.S. Department of Justice, which, below Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi and performing Deputy Lawyer Normal Emil Bove, ordered prosecutors last week to drop corruption prices in opposition to New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams.
In a Monday article written for New York magazine’s Intelligencer, Honig stated that this has “mushroomed right into a full-on existential disaster for the Justice Division,” as Bove’s order prompted a number of resignations from key federal prosecutors, together with one who stated it “amounted to a quid professional quo.”
Adams was indicted in September on allegations he accepted bribes and unlawful marketing campaign contributions, but curried favor with Trump in recent months, significantly by working with him on immigration, resulting in hypothesis that the DOJ order was a reward for Adams’ loyalty.
Bove argued in his directive that the case needs to be dropped so Adams may proceed to assist the Trump administration implement its immigration coverage, prompting Honig to sentence everybody concerned for each an absence of rules and self-awareness.
He wrote in his article that Bove “informed us fairly explicitly” that the order was politically motivated and that the resulting public outrage may’ve been averted had the DOJ determined that the case was “too skinny” or had Trump pardoned Adams personally.
Honig then went after Bondi with a sequence of scathing observations.
“Talking of: The place the hell is Pam Bondi in all this? (You realize: the brand new lawyer common of the US.),” he wrote. “Apparently she’s been gliding alongside, blithely half-aware of this case, as if it was some story she had glanced at on the web.”
Honig famous that when Bondi was requested final week why the case hadn’t been dismissed but regardless of seemingly clear directions for her colleague to make sure as a lot, she responded simply, “I didn’t know that it had not been dropped but” — which the CNN authorized analyst pounced on.
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“That’s humorous as a result of I did, and I’m not the lawyer common of the US,” he wrote. “And in a Fox News appearance, Bondi once more deflected, noting defensively that she was in a distinct time zone. (I’m unsure she totally understands how time zones work. All the identical stuff is definitely occurring, it’s simply that the clocks say barely various things the place you might be; it’s not such as you enter some alternate actuality.)”
Honig, who as soon as served as assistant U.S. lawyer in the identical district the place prosecutors have resigned because the Bove order got here down, then criticized the precedent Bondi and Bove are setting.
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“Right here’s the elemental downside with what Bove and DOJ management have executed,” he wrote. “They’ve enacted and embraced a coverage that it’s completely legitimate to base prosecution selections on the political inclinations of the topic: Mayor Adams can’t stay below indictment as a result of he’ll assist us promote our immigration coverage agenda.”
“Think about the place that precept leads,” Honig bleakly added.
