Two Manhattan prosecutors who worked on the corruption case against New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, were put on administrative leave by the Justice Department on Friday, according to four people with knowledge of the matter.
The prosecutors, Celia Cohen and Andrew Rohrbach, had been serving in high-ranking positions in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, the people said. Ms. Cohen had been chief counsel to the acting U.S. attorney, Matthew Podolsky, while Mr. Rohrbach had worked as a co-chief of the general crimes unit.
Three of the people said the Justice Department in Washington had acted without any warning on Friday and that Ms. Cohen and Mr. Rohrbach were immediately escorted out of the Lower Manhattan building that houses the U.S. attorney’s office.
A spokesman for the office declined to comment, and a spokesman for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The actions were first reported by ABC News.
The rapid-fire developments in the corruption case against Mr. Adams have led to significant fallout within the Department of Justice, starting last month when Emil Bove III, a top department official, ordered federal prosecutors in Manhattan to ask a judge to dismiss the case.
Mr. Bove’s justification was extraordinary for several reasons, including his contention that the case against the mayor was interfering with his ability to assist with President Trump’s immigration crackdown. For many decades, prosecutors’ decisions have been made based on the facts, the law and the interests of justice, rather than political or policy considerations.
Mr. Bove’s order, sent on Feb. 10, led to the resignations of at least eight prosecutors and supervisors in New York and Washington. Those departing included the previous acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Danielle R. Sassoon, and the government’s lead lawyer on the case, Hagan Scotten. Another prosecutor who worked on the case, Derek Wikstrom, was placed on administrative leave at the time.
Before her departure, Ms. Sassoon wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing lawyers for Mr. Adams of offering his full cooperation on immigration in exchange for the dismissal of the charges. A lawyer for Mr. Adams, Alex Spiro, has denied that accusation, as has Mr. Bove.
Mr. Bove accepted Ms. Sassoon’s offer of resignation and placed Mr. Scotten and Mr. Wikstrom on administrative leave. He also wrote that she, Mr. Scotten and Mr. Wikstrom would be the subjects of an inquiry by the Justice Department’s internal investigative arm and the attorney general’s office.
After several prosecutors in Washington resigned rather than file a motion to dismiss the charges against Mr. Adams, Mr. Bove himself, along with two other prosecutors, asked the presiding judge, Dale E. Ho of U.S. District Court in Manhattan, to throw out the case.
Rather than immediately grant the government’s request, Judge Ho asked an outside lawyer, Paul Clement, to help him evaluate the motion — and, possibly, the unique circumstances that prompted it. Mr. Clement’s brief is scheduled to be filed on Friday.