BY MATT BERG
& CROOKED MEDIA

FRIDAY
FEBRUARY 14, 2025

“I have him on the couch in front of millions of people — and he can’t back out now.” 

— Trump border czar Tom Homan, [appearing to threaten]([link removed]) NYC Mayor Eric Adams on national TV

ERIC ADAMS-SOPRANO

Donald Trump is trying to prove that he’s the King of New York by using Mayor Eric Adams’ criminal case as political leverage. It’s a sleazy tale of corruption and a bad omen of things to come.

- It’s not every day that a half-dozen top officials from the Department of Justice resign in horror while loudly refusing to carry out the president’s unethical power grab. But in the Trump era, that’s just another day ending in the letter Y — and it’s exactly what went down in the unbelievably shady saga playing out in Trump’s home town, New York City.

- It all started on Tuesday, when Trump's Department of Justice ordered New York prosecutors to drop the corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams, who had been indicted on charges of accepting bribes from foreign nationals (including luxury hotel rooms and wildly cheap flights to Turkey). But Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor took one look at that idea [and resigned]([link removed]). Dropping the charges would be “inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts,” interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi. The next six people in line to replace Sassoon resigned, too, rather than drop the charges. Later, Acting Deputy AG Emil Bove [accused Sassoon]([link removed]) of “insubordination.”

- Important note: These are no liberal snowflakes! Sassoon was literally Trump’s pick for this job, and she brings what the [New York Times called]([link removed]) “bulletproof conservative credentials.” In her letter, Sassoon accused Adams’s lawyers of “repeatedly” urging for “what amounted to a quid pro quo” with the Trump administration, if he agreed to help with the DOJ’s immigration enforcement efforts. And Sassoon wasn’t the only one to register her displeasure in terms loud and clear. 

- “I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me,” one prosecutor who [resigned wrote in a letter]([link removed]). And this from a guy who earned two Bronze stars in Iraq before clerking for conservative Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. What a slacker!
 

- The terms of Trump’s unsavory deal soon became clear, as Adams scrambled to reverse his opposition to Trump’s plan to round up undocumented migrants in New York City. This episode gives Trump enormous power over the scandal-plagued mayor — because the corruption charges can be snapped back into place whenever Adams steps out of line. This morning, Adams even staged an incredibly awkward appearance on Fox News with Trump’s southern border czar, Tom Homan, in which the thought bubble above Adams’ head was so clear you could almost see it on the screen: I’ll do whatever Trump wants to stay out of prison.

 
The Trump administration’s move to interfere in the Adams case sets a dangerous precedent for the DOJ. 

- Adams is now facing calls to step down, and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) is facing pressure to remove him from office. But Trump’s team is still going to bat for Adams, and pushing back on his critics. “Governor Hochul, she needs to be removed,” sniped Homan in the Fox News interview. “She supports sanctuary policies.” Adams sat beside him, staring blankly ahead, not saying a word — as if stuck in a hostage video. Homan seemed to be reveling in the capture of an enemy. “Now I have him on the couch in front of millions of people and he can’t back out now,” Homan said.
 

- Many who have worked for the DOJ believe the worst is yet to come. “It’s going to take decades to undo once he’s gone,” one former FBI agent told What A Day. “It’s a failure of the legislative branch for confirming his cabinet, a failure of the judicial branch for allowing him to run for president again and for keeping him from being prosecuted, and what we’re getting from that is the executive branch running away with the whole country. It’s difficult to watch.”

Ironically enough, Emil Bove himself [investigated the January 6 riot]([link removed]), too. Funny how that works.

DUFFMAN

Even some of Donald Trump’s top officials were gobsmacked by Co-President Elon Musk’s “buyout” offer to federal employees when they first heard about it. 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy admitted that he wasn’t totally sure that Musk’s offer was legit during a private town hall this morning (which What A Day [conveniently listened in on]([link removed])). On the call, Duffy recounted a tense White House meeting about the proposal with the billionaire.

Duffy said he pushed Musk over the concerns he was hearing from employees about whether the buyout offer was real. “I went to the White House, I talked to Elon himself. I’m like, ‘Hey, listen, this concern that you guys are making offers that aren’t real.” He asked, “Is this a real offer?

Elon insisted it was legit. “He was a little bit taken back by what I had said,” Duffy recounted. Duffy said he was assured that Trump supports the offer. Addressing employees, he said, “No one’s trying to trick you. No one’s trying to dupe you. It was an honest, real offer.”

About 77,000 federal workers have accepted the buyout. But union leaders and legal experts have warned that it [might not prove to be legal]([link removed]), because it bypasses Congress. 

Duffy felt it necessary to state that Elon is “not my boss.”Trump is “my boss, and I have no other boss,” Duffy said. “No one else is running the department at this level but me.”

He suggested he’s had a tough start as DOT secretary: “It’s been 18 days… [but] it feels like 18 months.” The DOT didn’t respond to What A Day’s request for comment.

Weird side note: Duffy also said that Trump told him he would have liked to be the transportation secretary if he weren’t president. “I don't know if this is supposed to be public or not,” Duffy said, noting that his conversation with the president was private.

WHAT A SPONSOR

 

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WHAT ELSE?

[Vice President JD Vance threatened sanctions against Russia]([link removed]) and sending U.S. troops to Ukraine if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t negotiate an end to the war in good faith. That’s a far tougher tone than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth struck earlier this week, when he said Ukraine won’t join NATO after the war is over.
 
[Speaking of that, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) said that he was “disturbed”]([link removed]) by Hegseth’s comments, calling them a “rookie mistake.” He continued: “I don’t know who wrote the speech — it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool.” Damn, it’s almost like if you didn’t want rookie mistakes you shouldn’t have voted for an entire slate of people with no experience! 
 
[Ukraine accused Russia of attacking the famed Chernobyl powerplant]([link removed]) with a “high-explosive warhead.” A fire was extinguished and radiation levels remained stable afterwards, but damn that’s scary.
 
[The Trump administration removed all references to transgender people]([link removed]) from the Stonewall National Monument website — y’know, the marker of the famed Stonewall Uprisings in 1969 that helped pave the way to LGBTQ rights.
 
[The Trump administration began laying off most of 200,000 workers]([link removed]) who had started their jobs within the past two years. 
 
[Donald Trump bashed Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for voting against]([link removed]) anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be head of the Department of Health and Human Services. McConnell’s experience as a polio survivor played into his decision, and Trump didn’t keep it classy: “I have no idea if he had polio,” he said. So Trump is a Mitch McConnell polio-truther now. Classy as always.

[It’s Valentines’ Day, but Trumpworld probably won’t be feeling the love for long.]([link removed]) Here’s a list of nine breakups ready to happen in Trump’s orbit.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
 
If you're looking for essential conversations, tune into Pod Save The People, where organizer and activist DeRay McKesson, along with Kaya Henderson and Myles Johnson, brings a sharp take on news, culture, and social justice—focusing on the stories that too often go overlooked. This week, they dive into how an AI program wrongfully jailed an innocent man for 17 months—and what that means for the future of justice. Listen to [Pod Save The People]([link removed]) every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts.
 

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[A kayaker in southern Chile was scooped up into the mouth of a humpback whale]([link removed]) before being released, unscathed. “At first, I thought I had died,” the very alive kayaker said. But good news! Humpback whales don’t like eating people, just small fish and such. Nature is so cool, man. 

[The Washington Post charted a ton of datasets that could be erased]([link removed]) or hidden under the Trump administration, including many about gender and sexuality. That’s the power of independent journalism (when Jeff Bezos isn’t being an asshole).

Meet Juniper!

“We adopted her from the Humane Rescue Alliance shortly after returning to D.C. for our roles in the Biden White House. When she's not cheering for her beloved NC State and New York Mets, she delights in playing with her stuffed mouse and trying to eat tape off Amazon packages. 

“She's hopeful that NC State’s basketball teams make it to the NCAA tournament and can't wait to see Juan Soto in the outfield for the Mets.”

– Megan Bates-Apper and Andrew Bates

 

 

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