By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A senior official in President Donald Trump’s Justice Department directed a prosecutor to shred notes they took of a meeting about the possibility of dismissing corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, a former senior prosecutor said in court filings made public on Tuesday.
The senior official, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General (PADAG) Emil Bove, asked a judge in February to dismiss the case because it was distracting the mayor from helping Trump crack down on illegal immigration. Former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon resigned earlier rather than carry out a direction from Bove to seek the case’s dismissal.
In a statement, Bove said, “There were many people present in that meeting, and at no time did the PADAG direct the shredding of any material.”
Adams has pleaded not guilty to charges he took bribes from Turkish officials in exchange for political favors.
On Tuesday, a draft letter addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi that Sassoon emailed to herself laying out her opposition to dropping the charges, was made public on the public docket for Adams’ case.
In the draft letter, Sassoon described a meeting earlier this year between Bove, Adams’ lawyers, and her team of Manhattan-based federal prosecutors.
“Mr. Bove directed a member of my team to shred his notes after our meeting with defense counsel,” Sassoon wrote.
Sassoon’s draft letter did not accuse Bove of wrongdoing by directing the notes to be shredded.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, declined to comment.
Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Adams, said in an email, “There was a comment about note-taking because the government was unlawfully leaking information to the media in their reckless pursuit of Mayor Adams.”
Sassoon’s final letter to Bondi, which was made public last month, said Bove “directed the collection” of notes a member of her team took at a January 31 meeting with Manhattan prosecutors and Adams’ lawyers, but did not mention shredding.
The draft letter was included in dozens of pages of internal communications among the Manhattan federal prosecutors about the Adams case made public on Tuesday.
Bove, a political appointee of Trump’s, and the president’s former personal criminal defense lawyer, had cited the internal communications in a March 7 court filing in which he alleged there was “troubling conduct” at the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office.
U.S. District Judge Dale Ho in Manhattan ordered the communications be made public in response to requests from media outlets.
Ho has not yet ruled on the Justice Department’s bid to dismiss Adams’ case.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York;Editing by Noeleen Walder and Rod Nickel)
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