A document unsealed Tuesday from the criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams may raise questions about the testimony of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche during his Senate confirmation hearing.
During the hearing, Blanche was asked about the Justice Department’s decision to drop the corruption charges against Adams.
“What I just saw with the dismissal of the Adams charge, that was directed by D.C., correct?” Democratic Sen. Peter Welch asked.
“I have the same information you have,” Blanche responded. “I don’t know beyond what I’ve [seen] publicly reported.”
However, a newly unsealed draft letter from then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon suggests Blanche may have known more than he let on.
Sassoon, who was fighting the directive to drop the mayor’s case, wrote that she expressed concern to top DOJ official Emil Bove that such a grave decision about a high-profile case should wait until Blanche was confirmed. In response, Sassoon wrote that “Bove informed me that Todd Blanche was on the ‘same page.’”
Sassoon would later resign rather than obey Bove’s order to drop the mayor’s case.
Her draft letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi was among a tranche of materials ordered unsealed by Judge Dale Ho, who is still considering whether to dismiss the case against Adams.
The Justice Department insisted Blanche played no role in the determination to seek dismissal.
“Todd Blanche was not involved in the Department’s decision-making prior to his confirmation,” a spokesperson said in a statement provided to ABC News.
The mayor’s lawyer said the unsealed letter is further proof that the case should be tossed.
“As I’ve said from the beginning, this bogus case that needed ‘gymnastics’ to find a crime – was based on ‘political motive’ and ‘ambition’, not facts or law. The more we learn about what was really going on behind the scenes, the clearer it is that Mayor Adams should have never been prosecuted in the first place,” the mayor’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, said in a statement.
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