The Supreme Federal Prosecutor in Manhattan resigned after the Department of Justice ordered her to reduce corruption allegations against the mayor of New York.
A spokesman for the American prosecutor for the Southern District of New York (SDDY) confirmed Danielle Sassoon's resignation on Thursday.
It comes four days after the Deputy Prosecutor General Emil Bove sent a note to Sassoon, ordering her to abandon the case against the mayor of New York Eric Adams. Prosecutors at the Sassoon office have not yet submitted a formal application to dismiss the case.
The Department of Justice did not immediately answer at the request for comment.
Adams, a former police captain, is accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions and bribes from foreign citizens, including lavish foreign travels. He faces a conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery in a five -time indictment sworn in in September last year.
Adams, a democrat who established ties with US President Donald Trump, did not plead guilty.
The southern district, known for the introduction of high -profile matters regarding financial crimes, public corruption and national security, has long been known for its independence from the Department of Justice in Washington.
It was not clear who would take Sassoon.
The Mayor of New York and former NYPD officer, Eric Adams, was accused of five federal allegations related to the allegations that he accepted illegal campaign and bribe contributions from foreign citizens in exchange for a favor.
Half a dozen of former Sddy prosecutors told Reuters that an order from Bove, the former prosecutor SDDY himself, who also served as a personal lawyer of Trump's criminal defense, asked questions about whether the office could remain independent of political pressure during the second term of the White House of Trump.
In his note Bove said that the decision to abandon the case had nothing to do with its advantages. Instead, he wrote that the case distracts Adams from helping Trump in loosening illegal immigration, one of the most important priorities of the Republican President.
Trump transformed the Department of Justice to end what he calls his weapon against political opponents during the administration of former democratic president Joe Biden, but which critics claim that he threatens to submit to political whims.