NEW YORK (AP) — The former interim U.S. attorney who quit rather than drop the criminal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams defended her integrity during testimony Thursday in Manhattan federal court. Danielle Sassoon testified for more than an hour as a defense lawyer tried to convince a judge that she had suggested prosecutors would not criminally charge a woman with crimes related to the FTX cryptocurrency scandal if the woman’s boyfriend pleaded guilty.
Sassoon, who graduated from Harvard College in 2008 and from Yale Law School in 2011, was adamant that she never suggested such a deal and had gone to great lengths to insist to the woman’s lawyers that no deal like that was possible.
“I'm not in the business of gotcha or tricking people into pleading guilty,” Sassoon stated as Judge George B. Daniels observed. Sassoon is now in private practice.
The one-time law clerk for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia resigned last winter as interim U.S. attorney after refusing to carry out orders from the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against Adams earlier this year. The case was eventually dropped after prosecutors from Washington submitted a request to a judge.
The testimony on Thursday came as lawyers for Michelle Bond, of Potomac, Maryland, attempted to convince the judge that prosecutors reneged on promises not to charge her with scheming with her boyfriend to use FTX cryptocurrency money for her failed 2022 congressional campaign.
Bond’s lawyers claimed that prosecutors suggested she would not be prosecuted if they secured a guilty plea from Ryan Salame, FTX Digital Markets’ former CEO, who was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for campaign finance and illegal money-transmitting charges.
The lawyers argued that prosecutors engaged in deception, securing the plea from Salame after making an express promise to Bond regarding her prosecution. Sassoon testified that she believed the effort was a negotiation tactic suggesting an implication by the lawyers that there would not be charges if Salame pled guilty.
The ongoing court proceedings raise significant issues regarding prosecutorial conduct and the implications of campaign financing, creating a complex narrative in the political and legal landscape surrounding the FTX collapse.
Sassoon, who graduated from Harvard College in 2008 and from Yale Law School in 2011, was adamant that she never suggested such a deal and had gone to great lengths to insist to the woman’s lawyers that no deal like that was possible.
“I'm not in the business of gotcha or tricking people into pleading guilty,” Sassoon stated as Judge George B. Daniels observed. Sassoon is now in private practice.
The one-time law clerk for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia resigned last winter as interim U.S. attorney after refusing to carry out orders from the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against Adams earlier this year. The case was eventually dropped after prosecutors from Washington submitted a request to a judge.
The testimony on Thursday came as lawyers for Michelle Bond, of Potomac, Maryland, attempted to convince the judge that prosecutors reneged on promises not to charge her with scheming with her boyfriend to use FTX cryptocurrency money for her failed 2022 congressional campaign.
Bond’s lawyers claimed that prosecutors suggested she would not be prosecuted if they secured a guilty plea from Ryan Salame, FTX Digital Markets’ former CEO, who was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for campaign finance and illegal money-transmitting charges.
The lawyers argued that prosecutors engaged in deception, securing the plea from Salame after making an express promise to Bond regarding her prosecution. Sassoon testified that she believed the effort was a negotiation tactic suggesting an implication by the lawyers that there would not be charges if Salame pled guilty.
The ongoing court proceedings raise significant issues regarding prosecutorial conduct and the implications of campaign financing, creating a complex narrative in the political and legal landscape surrounding the FTX collapse.
