DOJ in disarray: Bove's bluster to blame? Resignations ripple after Adams case order.

Also: Two more parts of Trump's anti-trans executive orders are blocked — a win for trans teens seeking health care and those supporting them.

Emil Bove’s February 13, 2025 letter to Danielle Sassoon.

The efforts to undermine the rule of law in America hit a new low point (for now) in the 25th day of the new Trump administration, as the leaders of the Justice Department publicly fought with their own employees to dismiss charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams on plainly political grounds.

That effort, though, was met with multiples resignations, including from some of the Trump administration’s hand-picked “acting” heads of multiple departments — a stark sign of principled pushback and of the limits of the new administration’s power.

“I cannot fulfill my obligations, effectively lead my office in carrying out the Department's priorities, or credibly represent the Government before the courts, if I seek to dismiss the Adams case on this record,” Danielle Sassoon, who had been the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York until Thursday, wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday. The eight-page letter was published by The New York Times.

Sassoon’s actions stood in contrast to Senate Republicans, who — to give just one example — on Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. (Except for Sen. Mitch McConnell, that is, who voted no.)

Thursday also, and by his own signature, highlighted the depths to which Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer who is now in a non-Senate-confirmed senior role at the Justice Department, will gladly go. After authoring the initial letter on February 10 ordering the case against Adams to be dismissed, Bove also authored the unhinged letter on Thursday responding to Sassoon.

Accepting the resignation of Sassoon, a former clerk to then-Justice Antonin Scalia, Bove told her, “You lost sight of the oath that you took when you started at the Department of Justice by suggesting that you retain discretion to interpret the Constitution in a manner inconsistent with the policies of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General.”

He went on to write like a madman, announcing that all of “the AUSAs principally responsible for this case” were being put on administrative leave and would be placed under investigation — under the auspices of Trump’s executive order “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government“ and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s memorandum “Restoring the Integrity and Credibility of the Department ofJustice.“

In short, Bove is weaponizing government to investigate those employees of the Department of Justice showing any integrity.

He also, for now, is Bondi’s No. 2 at DOJ.

That wasn’t all. As Ryan Reilly reported at NBC News, efforts to get someone at Main Justice to do Bove’s dirty work were no more successful.

John Keller, the acting head of DOJ’s Public Integrity Section and a longtime DOJ employee, resigned rather than dismiss the case.

“Three other members of the section also resigned,“ Reilly added.

Kevin Driscoll, the acting head of the department's Criminal Division and another longtime employee, resigned as well.

No documents were filed on the docket in Eric Adams’s case on Thursday, as of this publication.

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Part of anti-trans care EO blocked

Parts of two of President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting transgender people were put on hold Thursday, the latest loss for the virulently anti-trans Trump administration in court.

Following a hearing on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson temporarily blocked the Trump administration from “conditioning or withholding federal funding based on the fact that a healthcare entity or health professional provides gender affirming medical care to a patient under the age of nineteen“ under either parts of two executive orders that sought to block funding.

The PFLAG-led lawsuit was brought in federal court in Maryland a few days into February.

The first covered provision was a part of Trump’s January 20 executive order defining “sex” to exclude transgender people. The provision purports to block funds that “promote gender ideology,” which is just the Trump administration’s scare phrase to attack transgender, nonbinary, and other queer people by claiming, in effect, that they are being defined out of existence:

The second executive order in question was Trump’s order purporting to require agencies to take actions that would restrict availability of gender-affirming medical care for those people younger than 19. Among the provisions was this one, with more scare language, challenged here:

Hurson, a Biden appointee, issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of both provisions for 14 days on Thursday. (That is the normal time period for a TRO; it could and likely will be extended, if needed, as the preliminary injunction motion is considered.)

Additionally, and as is becoming more common as courts grapple with how well their orders are being followed under the new administration, Hurson ordered the Justice Department to file both a notice with all of the affected agencies about the effect of Thursday’s order …

… and a follow-up status report with the court by next week providing evidence of compliance.

That’s what happens when courts feel like they can’t take a government lawyer’s word for it — something that was certainly not helped by the actions of those at the top of the Department on Thursday.