March 7, 2025, 3:14 PM CST
By
Ryan J. Reilly and
Tom Winter
Two federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York who worked on the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams were placed on leave Friday and escorted out of the building by federal law enforcement officials, multiple current and former law enforcement sources told NBC News.
Adams was facing charges in an alleged corruption scheme, but the Justice Department sought to drop the case soon after President Donald Trump took office. The move
set off a string of resignations at the Justice Department — including
the acting U.S. attorney in the Southern District, Danielle Sassoon — by prosecutors who said the Trump administration was improperly using the charges as leverage over Adams and alleged the government was offering to drop the case if he cooperated with the administration's immigration enforcement initiatives.
The case was
indefinitely delayed after then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove moved to dismiss the case. The judge handling the Adams case is still reviewing the move for dismissal.
Andrew Rohrbach and Celia Cohen were the prosecutors placed on administrative leave on Friday. The departures came a day after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was sworn in following confirmation by the Senate this week. Law enforcement sources said that Rohrbach and Cohen were given letters signed by Blanche.
Other law enforcement sources told NBC News that at least one other Justice Department attorney was placed on administrative leave, apparently due to comments that person made on social media about Ed Martin, Trump's pick as interim U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia. Martin — who backed Trump's false 2020 election claims, spoke at the Capitol on the eve of Jan. 6, 2021, riot, and previously defended alleged and convicted rioters — recently sent an unusual letter to Georgetown Law School about its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, sparking a reply from the dean that called Martin's actions an "
attack on the University’s mission as a Jesuit and Catholic institution."
Martin, who
Trump wants to make Washington's top federal prosecutor on a permanent basis, is facing a
complaint from several Senate Democrats alleging that he "abused his position in several ways, including dismissing charges against his own client and using the threat of prosecution to intimidate government employees and chill the speech of private citizens."
