Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre had nothing on Trump's DOJ
Last week, seven federal prosecutors resigned rather than sign off on dismissing federal criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. They were right to do so because the dismissal is a blatant quid pro quo, with charges being dropped in exchange for Adams agreeing to assist in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The affair highlights how the second Trump administration is speedrunning the authoritarian playbook, taking less than a month to reach the stage where its demands are so blatantly illegal that even loyalists can’t carry them out.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, previously employed as one of Trump’s defense attorneys, ordered the charges dropped, but not for the typical reasons criminal charges are dismissed, such as prosecutorial misconduct or insufficient evidence. Instead, Bove said that the pending criminal charges meant that Adams couldn’t devote sufficient attention to fighting illegal immigration and violent crime.
Needless to say, this is not a typical reason to dismiss criminal charges. It is, however, reminiscent of an argument Trump made regarding the criminal charges he himself dealt with: that if a president faced a threat of future prosecution, it would prevent them from taking “bold and unhesitating action,” so he should be immune from prosecution.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/17/2304409/-Trump-s-nightmare-DOJ-evokes-memories-of-infamous-Nixon-massacre