Danielle R. Sassoon shot as a laser through the office of the US representative in Manhattan, and the fight against fraud with violent crime and securities fraud, as well as manipulation of challenges than was increased at the age of 38 to be his interim head.
There, just a few weeks after its operation, the most prestigious federal prosecutor’s office in the country, encountered an obstacle that threatened to stop its rapid ascension: the desire of President Trump’s government to abandon the accusation of corruption against the mayor in New York Eric Adams.
Given her experience – and the bulletproof conservative credentials as a member of the Federalist Society – Mrs. Sassoon seemed ready to lead an office who, during the first term of Mr. Trump, recorded stormy times when he burned two of the American lawyers. In recent days, prosecutors have been eagerly monitored by Mrs. Sassoon to see how she could respond at the request of the Ministry of Justice to abandon the case of Adams, who supported the court.
She had long -term experience with values before the skeptical audience. It must now mediate between the office where this kind of independence is valued, and the administration that explicitly ended with the prosecution of Adams.
Through the spokesperson, Mrs Sassoon refused to comment on this article.
Before the case Adams pulled it to the center of attention, her life was characterized by a success that was remarkable in the environments where success is the norm. She was born and grew up in New York and attended a modern Orthodox Ramaz school on Manhattan at UPPER East Side, where she was the first in her class and won an award for academic perfection. In high school she spent hours studying Talmud, the effort she said, she prepared her to study law.
Rebecca Kaden, a close girlfriend who met Mrs. Sassoon just before the start of her first year at the University of Harvard, said she always knew that Mrs. Sassoon would be a lawyer. The future American lawyer was a brain, dynamic thinker who discussed eagerly and discussed ideas.
Wrote columns about Middle East policy For Student Newspapers, one of them in their role as a press secretary of Harvard students for Israel, as well as the profile of the soft focus of a classmate for the “Scene” project.
One of her classes “Justice” was taught by Professor Michael J. Sandel in a wrapped auditorium of hundreds of students, some of whom received an enthusiastic applause. Mrs. Sassoon stood in this class and issued an open argument against racial confirmation.
“It could be said that a positive action preserves the division between races, rather than achieving the final goal, that race was an irrelevant factor in our society,” she said.
When it ended, there was no applause.
But if she couldn’t talk honestly with her peers, Mrs. Sassoon could be soft with the mentors on the campus. A family friend introduced her to Professor Law Alan Dershowitz, who soon led her as a research assistant. Mr. Dershowitz said that Mrs. Sassoon understood “all parties of all arguments,” but remembered her as “difficult, reserved” and “shy”.
“He will be very polite and very gently invite you,” Mr. Dershowitz said, adding, “She has always been interested in public service.”
After graduating from Harvard Magna Cum Laude in 2008, Mrs. Sassoon visited Yale Law School, known for his focus on the right of public interest. In 2011 she graduated and worked in consecutive officials for conservative judges.
The first, J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the Federal Court of Appeal for the Fourth District, in Richmond, Va., Mrs. Sassoon recalled as a whip-Smart and versatile as home in the higher district of appeal law and before the jury.
He said he would not comment on “in any way, in shape or in the form” of the decision that Mrs Sassoon faces in the case of Adams or others. He added, “Everything I would say is that Danielle is someone who is very principled and strictly honest and plays it straight.”
Later she devoted herself to the Supreme Court for Judge Antonin Scalia, a giant conservative legal movement. IN essay after his death In 2016 she wrote: “The judiciary Scalia was my kind of feminist.
“She saved me any argumentation strokes and demanded strictness from my work,” she added. “He taught me how to shoot a gun and a rifle, and made me feel like I had a gravel.” He thickened my skin, which was the best preparation for a career in the field controlled by a man. ”
The year when she wrote an essay, Mrs. Sassoon, registered Republican, she began working as a prosecutor in an US legal representative, where political neutrality is primary value. She hired herself in the Southern District of New York under Preet Bharara, named President Barack Obama, went through general crimes and narcotic troops before focusing on violent crime and securities fraud. She had done eight attempts, including two cases of murder.
In one court proceedings, the conviction of Lawrence V. Ray was given for charging and trading in sex related to his abuse of Sarah Lawrence College students. He got 60 years in prison.
She is best known for the prosecution of fraud Sam Banman, fried, founder of Exchange FTX cryptocurrency. Mrs. Sassoon grilled Mr. Banman fried in a four -hour cross examination, spying him with raction of the A-tata series of interrogation It contrasted his public statement with his private behavior. Publicist Joe Nocera after watching back and forth, wrote in a free press The fact that Mr. Banman was fried “dead man walking”.
Was convicted and Sentenced to 25 years in prison.
In 2023, at that time, under the US deputy Damian Williams, Mrs. Sassoon was promoted to a participation in a criminal appeal unit, where she would most likely review the legal data of some of the highest cases-including his prosecution of Mayor Adams.
This was the position she held last month when Trump’s administration was promoted to temporarily lead the office. It was expected that its tenure would be relatively short. In mid -March, the child and the election of President Trump has permanently lead the office, Jay Clayton, and is expected to float the process of confirming the Senate.
She was an active leader, participated in the social gatherings of the organized units of the office, and recently appeared in court to observe the convictions of Robert Menendez, a former democratic senator of New Jersey, accusing corruption. He got 11 years in prison.
Shortly after he was appointed a temporary US lawyer last month, Mrs. Sassoon joined the interviews Case against Mayor Adams. 31. January traveled to Washington, DC, to Personal Meeting at the Ministry of Justice Discuss the possibility of dropping fees.
She seemed not to be questioned for her friends: two days after the meeting, she and her husband Adam Katz threw a birthday party for her young daughter (Mr. Katz is a co -founder of the investment company Irenica’s capital administration.
This week, the official of the department, the official of the ministry, Emil Bove IIIShe ordered Mrs. Sassoon to cancel this case in the note and order that she had rejected the waiting accusation “as soon as possible”.
Mrs. Sassoon cannot reject the fees. She – or prosecutor in her office – would have to ask a judge who would supervise the case. After the memory of Mr. Bove became the public, the veterans of the office began to quickly discuss how Mrs. Sassoon could react.
This month, Mrs. Sassoon published an essay in Wall Street Journal, in which she criticized President Biden for commuting a sentence of nearly 2,500 “allegedly non -violent perpetrators” without consulting the prosecutors or judges.
Mrs. Sassoon wrote: “The lack of the considered decision -making process showed ignoring the work and knowledge of prosecutors and judges.
“At this time of the transition,” added Mrs. Sassoon, “I look forward to my role to ensure that prosecutors can continue their noble work, outside the September and public service.”
