Exclusive: Star Prosecutor — Danielle Sassoon — Who Resigned in Defiance of Trump’s DOJ Must Testify About Allegedly Violating Plea Deal in Crypto Case

A hearing on Thursday over whether the government violated a plea deal it negotiated with a lieutenant of fallen crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried threatens to return the spotlight to a young prosecutor who defied President Trump early in his second term — Danielle Sassoon.The showdown between Ms. Sassoon and the Trump administration came after she refused to drop criminal bribery charges against Mayor Eric Adams when she was serving as acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. She alleged a quid pro quo whereby the case would be dismissed in exchange for Hizzoner’s cooperation on immigration.Before Ms. Sassoon led — albeit in an interim capacity — what many take to be the most prestigious Department of Justice office in the country, she burnished her bona fides as the lead prosecutor in the case of Mr. Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX. The one-time billionaire — who attracted speculation that he could become the planet’s first trillionaire — was convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole.Mr. Bankman-Fried is appealing that verdict. The Sun reached out to Ms. Sassoon for comment without a reply. Her efforts to convict him were aided by her office securing the cooperation of several of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lieutenants, including his former girlfriend, Caroline Ellison. She was sentenced to two years in prison. A co-founder of FTX, Gary Wang, was not sentenced to prison at all. Prosecutors praised both Ms. Ellison and Mr. Wang for aiding in their prosecution of Mr. Bankman-Fried.Another of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s top deputies, Ryan Salame, pleaded guilty as a part of a plea agreement with the government and received a prison sentence of seven and a half years. Mr. Salame sought to reverse that plea on the grounds that one of the terms of the accord was that the SDNY would not prosecute his then-pregnant wife, Michelle Bond, for alleged campaign finance violations. Mr. Salame dropped that effort. The charges against Ms. Bond, though, have not been dropped. Ms. Bond lost in the 2022 Republican primary for New York’s 1st Congressional District. She is trying to dismiss the charges against her by arguing that her and her husband’s attorneys were “advised that the agreement to cease investigating Ms. Bond could not be placed within the four corners of the Salame plea or other written agreement, but the government still offered it as an inducement to induce the plea.” Now a judge in the SDNY, George Daniels, wants some answers from the government about Ms. Bond’s “disputed claim that the government promised that Ms. Bond would not be further investigated or prosecuted if her partner, Ryan Salame, plead guilty to his offense.” Judge Daniels’s rulings so far suggest that he is inclined to take Ms. Bond’s argument seriously — and that Ms. Sassoon, now an affiliate of the Manhattan Institute, could soon find herself testifying under oath. Last week Judge Daniels, who was appointed by President Clinton, denied the government’s motion to preclude Ms. Bond from testifying. He also rebuffed the SDNY’s request that it be allowed to cross-examine Ms. Bond “regarding aspects of the underlying case that bear on her credibility.” He also ordered the government to produce all documents “that indicate whether a promise was made that Ms. Bond would not be prosecuted.”Most significantly, Judge Daniels granted Ms. Bond’s motion to compel testimony from Ms. Sassoon. That means she will be required to explain, under oath, the nature of what agreement — if any — was reached between her office and Mr. Salame and Ms. Bond. Judge Daniels writes that if the “government does not intend to call Ms. Sassoon as its witness,” Ms. Bond may call her to the stand as her witness.One lawyer who will not be in court is Ms. Bond’s former attorney, Gina Parlovecchio, a partner at the Mayer Brown firm. Ms. Parlovecchio negotiated on Ms. Bond’s behalf with the government during the period at issue. Court records mention only her “sudden unavailability.” Judge Daniels declined to move the hearing, but ordered Ms. Parlovecchio to testify at a later date.If the government is found to have violated an agreement with a defendant, judges can order the guilty plea withdrawn, order the performance of whatever arrangement was agreed upon, order a new sentencing, or vacate the conviction entirely. In 2021 the Pennsylvania supreme court dismissed Bill Cosby’s three convictions for aggravated indecent assault because of an “unwritten promise” with a prosecutor six years earlier.The Keystone State’s highest court found that a press release from the district attorney, Bruce Castor, “was made deliberately to induce the deprivation of a fundamental right” — the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination. More recently Ghislaine Maxwell argued that a plea agreement reached in Florida with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein ought to cover her in New York. The Supreme Court declined to take up that argument.

Exclusive: Star Prosecutor — Danielle Sassoon — Who Resigned in Defiance of Trump’s DOJ Must Testify About Allegedly Violating Plea Deal in Crypto Case

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