In the span of 36 hours beginning February 13, 2025, at least seven federal prosecutors resigned rather than comply with orders to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams -- the largest mass resignation of federal prosecutors in American history, immediately dubbed the "Thursday Afternoon Massacre."
The Order: On Monday, February 10, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent a memo to the SDNY directing prosecutors to abandon the five-count indictment filed against Adams in September 2024 for bribery, wire fraud, and solicitation of foreign campaign contributions. The stated rationale: the case interfered with Adams' ability to assist the administration's mass deportation efforts.
The Quid Pro Quo: Acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon disclosed that she attended a January 31 meeting where Adams' attorneys "repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed." The deal was explicit: drop the corruption charges, and Adams would use city resources to assist federal immigration enforcement.
The Resignations (February 12-14):
The Judge's Response: Federal Judge Dale Ho ultimately dismissed the Adams indictment with prejudice on April 2, 2025 -- a harsher outcome than DOJ's request for dismissal without prejudice. Ho wrote that everything "smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions" and that dismissal without prejudice "would create the unavoidable perception that the Mayor's freedom depends on his ability to carry out the immigration enforcement priorities of the administration."
The mass resignation was unprecedented in DOJ history. The closest precedent -- the 1973 Saturday Night Massacre -- involved three officials. The Adams case produced seven resignations in 36 hours and the effective destruction of the Public Integrity Section, the post-Watergate office specifically designed to ensure that public corruption could be prosecuted free from political interference. The episode demonstrated that the administration was willing to destroy the federal government's corruption prosecution capacity to secure the cooperation of a single city mayor in immigration enforcement.