Three more federal prosecutors resign over pushback on NYC Mayor Eric Adams' corruption case dismissal

Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on Apr 22, 2025

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NEW YORK — Three more prosecutors on the team involved with Mayor Eric Adams’ federal corruption case have resigned rather than admit wrongdoing, they wrote in a resignation letter, according to published reports.

Celia V. Cohen, Andrew Rohrbach and Derek Wikstrom, all who were previously placed on administrative leave after they refused orders by Blanche’s office to dismiss the charges against Adams, stepped down from their roles on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The resignations come as President Trump’s pick for top prosecutor, Jay Clayton, steps into his new role as the interim U.S. Attorney.

“It is now clear that one of the preconditions you have placed on our returning to the office is that we must express regret and admit some wrongdoing,” the three prosecutors wrote in their letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, according to Politico.

“We will not confess wrongdoing when there was none.”

The Trump Department of Justice’s move to dismiss the mayor’s charges set off turmoil in the Southern District of New York. The decision triggered the resignations of Danielle Sassoon, then the interim U.S. Attorney, Hagan Scotten, the lead prosecutor on the case, and several others.

Clayton was installed as the new interim U.S. Attorney after Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he’d try to block Clayton’s nomination.

Matthew Podolsky has been serving in the role in the wake of Sassoon’s resignation.

The three prosecutors had been placed on leave after the DOJ ordered Adams’ bribery and corruption charges dropped.

The lawyers also wrote that the Justice Department, under Trump, “has decided that obedience supersedes all else, requiring us to abdicate our legal and ethical obligations in favor of directions from Washington.”

“That is wrong,” they wrote.

Spokespeople for the DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for SDNY declined to comment.

In the decision to drop the charges, Judge Dale Ho wrote that the prosecutors working on the case followed the appropriate procedures and guidelines.

“There is no evidence — zero — that they had any improper motives,” Ho said in the ruling, made earlier this month.

In the DOJ’s initial February memo ordering the dismissal of the case, then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove wrote that the move did not undermine “the integrity and efforts of the line prosecutors responsible for the case.”

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