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DANIELLE Sassoon has resigned as Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor over New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ criminal scandal.
Before the mayor’s corruption charges, Sassoon already had her share of high-profile cases – including those of crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried and sex cult leader Lawrence Ray.
The former acting US attorney, 38, left her position with the Southern District of New York on Thursday after refusing to drop the charges against Adams, who has ties with President Donald Trump.
Sassoon, wrote an emphatic letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday saying she refused to follow the Justice Department’s order to dismiss the case because it violated her duty to the public.
The Republican was temporarily appointed US attorney on January 21 while Trump’s permanent pick for the job, Jay Clayton, waits for US Senate confirmation.
Her short-lived time in the top seat continued the lawyer’s impressive career in her hometown of New York City.
The New York native attended Harvard University and got her law degree from Yale.
Her legal career began as a law clerk for the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia from July 2012 to August 2013.
She joined the SDNY in 2016 after working as a litigation associate at law firm Kirland & Ellis in New York.
Sassoon was part of the trial team that convicted cult leader Lawrence Ray in 2022.
Ray, 66, was found guilty of 15 criminal counts including sex trafficking after he started a sex cult in his daughter’s dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College about 20 miles outside of New York City.
He was accused of physically and sexually abusing several of his daughter’s classmates for about 10 years across three different states.
Ray was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Sassoon became best known for leading SDNY’s prosecution of crypto tycoon Bankman-Fried in 2023.
The former founder of bankrupt crypto company FTX was accused of stealing $8 billion from his customers in one of the biggest financial frauds in history.
Sassoon helped to convict the disgraced exec with her brutal cross-examination.
Bankman-Fried was found guilty of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
