Daniel R. Sasson shot like a laser through the US Lawyer's office in Manhattan. Not only did Stint fight violent crimes and securities fraud, but he also handled the appeal before becoming interim head at the age of 38.
There, weeks after she ran the country's most honorable federal prosecutor's office, she encountered a barrier that threatened to stop the rapid rise. It is the desire of President Trump's administration to withdraw corruption charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams.
Her experience, and conservative credentials as a member of the Federalist Association – Sasson saw a turbulent era when he fired two US lawyers during Trump's first term Apparently he was ready to lead the film. Recently, prosecutors were worried about Sasson to see how she responded to the Justice Department's request to abolish the Adams case, which she had endorsed in court filings.
She has gained a long history of standing up for her values ​​before a skeptical audience. Now she must mediate between an office where that kind of independence is respected and a regime that explicitly granted political order to end Adams' prosecution.
Through a spokesman, Sasson declined to comment on the article.
Before Adams' incident led her to the spotlight, her life was characterized by notable achievements, even in environments where achievement was the norm. Born and raised in New York City, she attended the contemporary Orthodox Ramaz School on Manhattan's Upper East Side, where she was the first in her class to win an award for Academic Excellence. In high school, she spent hours studying the Talmud every day.
Best friend Rebecca Caden, who met Sasson just before she began her freshman year at Harvard, said she always knew that Sasson would become a lawyer. Future US lawyers were brains, dynamic thinkers eager to discuss and discuss ideas.
She wrote a column on Middle Eastern politics in student newspapers. One of them is the role of a student spokesman at Harvard University in Israel and a soft focus profile of a classmate in a friend's magazine project, Scene.
One of her classes, “Justice,” was taught by Professor Michael J. Sandel in an auditorium filled with hundreds of students. Some of those comments received enthusiastic applause. In that class, Sussone stood up and presented a candid discussion of racially-based affirmative behavior.
“Assisted, positive action can be argued that rather than achieving the ultimate goal that race is an unrelated factor in our society, it perpetuates racial division,” she said. I said that.
When she was finished, there was no applause.
But if she was afraid to speak openly with her peers, Sussone might be softly spoken with her campus mentor. A family friend introduced her to law professor Alan Delschitz and soon brought her as a research assistant. Dershowitz said Sassoon understands “all aspects of every discussion,” but remembers her as “difficult, modest” and “shy.”
“She will challenge you very politely and very kindly,” Dershowitz said, “She has always been interested in public services.”
After graduating from Harvard Magna Come Laude in 2008, Sasson attended Yale Law School, known for his focus on public interest law. She graduated in 2011 and served as a serial clerk for a conservative judge.
Initially, J. Harvey Wilkinson III of the Federal Court of Appeals in the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, remembered Ms. Sussone as whip-smart and versatile.
He said he would not comment on the Adams incident and the decision he faced with others, “in any form, in any form.” He added: “What I say is that Daniel is a very principled, strictly honest person who plays it straight.”
She was later written to the Supreme Court for Judge Antonin Scalia, a giant of the conservative legal movement. In his essay after his death in 2016, she wrote:
“He didn't escape the punch of argument and demanded severity on my work,” she added. “He taught me how to fire pistols and rifles. He thickened my skin. This was the best preparation for a career in a male-dominated field.”
The year she wrote the essay, Sussone, a registered Republican, began working as a prosecutor at the US Lawyer's Office, where political neutrality is the most important value. Employed in the southern district of New York under Preet Ballarra, appointed by President Barack Obama, she struck general crime and drug troops before focusing on violent crime and securities fraud. She handled eight trials, including two murder cases.
In one trial, she won the conviction of Lawrence V. Ray on charges of fear and sex trafficking related to abuse of a student at Sarah Lawrence College. He was taken in prison for 60 years.
She is best known for her fraud prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of Cryptocurrency Exchange FTX. Sussone burned Mr Bankman in a four-hour cross-examination. Columnist Joe Nosella wrote in the Free Press that Bankmanfried was “a walking dead” after observing the back and forth.
He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
In 2023, under the then US lawyer, Sasson's Damian Williams was promoted to the joint highest of the Criminal Appeals Unit. Mayor Adams prosecuted.
That was when the Trump administration promoted her to temporarily lead the office last month. Her tenure was expected to be relatively short. She has an infant in mid-March, and Jay Clayton, the choice for President Trump to lead the office forever, is expected to sail through the Senate confirmation process.
She is an active leader, attending a social gathering held by the office forces, and recently appeared in court to rule out a sentence on corruption charges. did. He was taken to 11 years in prison.
Shortly after being appointed as an interim US lawyer last month, Sasson became involved in conversations about the lawsuit against Mayor Adams. On January 31, she traveled to Washington, D.C. for a face-to-face meeting at the Department of Justice, debating the possibility of withdrawing the charges.
To my friend, she seemed to be in a fake position. Two days after the meeting, she and her husband Adam Katz threw a birthday party for their young daughter (Katz is the co-founder of investment company Irenic Capital Management).
This week, Emil Bove III, the department's second issue of issue, ordered Sussone to drop the case in a memo, and directed him to dismiss pending charges “as much as feasible.”
Sasson cannot dismiss herself. She (or the prosecutor in her office) must ask the judge who oversees the trial to do so. After Bove's memo was released, veterans in the office quickly began debating how Sasson would react.
This month, Sasson published an essay in the Wall Street Journal, criticizing President Biden for commuting to work for nearly 2,500 “probably nonviolent offenders” without consulting with relevant prosecutors or judges. did.
Sussone wrote: “The lack of a considered decision-making process showed the neglect of the work and knowledge of the prosecutors and judges.
“At this point of transition,” Sasson added. “We look forward to ensuring that prosecutors are not obstructed, are in the spotlight and can resume their noble work in public service.”
