Seven members of the U.S. Justice Department Public Integrity Section in the Southern District of New York, resigned Friday after refusing to follow orders and quash an indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has been charged with bribery. 

Mayor Adams was charged on September 26 with allegedly taking improper and illegal benefits from foreign nationals—including allowing a Manhattan skyscraper to open without a fire inspection—Adams put the interests of his benefactors, including a foreign official, above those of his constituents. 

Adams has denied all charges. 

Emil Bove III, the Justice Department’s acting number two official and President Trump’s former lawyer, has ordered the Justice Department to drop the charges against Adams who had been cozying up to President Trump in recent weeks.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that the Trump administration is moving to drop the criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams to exercise control over the embattled politician. 

“What is clear is that the White House decided to dismiss the criminal charges pending against Mayor Adams without prejudice,” Jeffries told reporters at the Capitol.

Federal prosecutors on Friday formally asked U.S. District Court Judge Dale Ho to drop the five-count criminal indictment against Adams which sparked mass resignations.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on MSNBC that she has the right to suspend Adams before firing him.

In 2023, newly elected Las Angeles Mayor  Karen Bass warned other big-city Black mayors would be unfairly attacked by people who wanted them out of office. 

The city’s top elected officials included Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. 

The mayors met on July 28, 2023, in Houston. President and CEO of the National Urban League Marc H. Morial moderated the conference.

This has similarities to the Saturday Night Massacre in 1973 which eventually led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

There was a series of resignations over the dismissal of special prosecutor Archibald Cox that took place in the United States Department of Justice during the Watergate scandal in 1973. 

The events followed the refusal by Cox to drop a subpoena for the Nixon White House tapes at President Richard Nixon‘s request.

During a single evening on Saturday, October 20, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Archibald Cox; Richardson refused and resigned effective immediately. 

Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox; Ruckelshaus refused and also resigned. 

Nixon then ordered the third-most-senior official at the Justice Department, Solicitor General Robert Bork, to fire Cox. Bork carried out the dismissal as Nixon asked. 

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York charged that Mayor Adams abused his position as the City’s highest elected official, and before that as Brooklyn Borough President, to take bribes and solicit illegal campaign contributions. 

The officials joined now-former acting U.S. attorney for Manhattan Danielle Sassoon and seven other career leaders of the department’s Public Integrity Section — which is tasked with prosecuting some of the most politically sensitive corruption cases pursued by the department.

Sassoon submitted her resignation Thursday, just days after the Justice Department sought to end the federal bribery case against Adams.

The resignations also included two attorneys of the Southern District of New York, Acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon and Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten, as well as five officials of the Criminal Division‘s Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C., including the acting head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Robert Driscoll, and the acting chief of Public Integrity, John Keller.