• 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. 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 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 “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. 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.

• 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.”

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