Two Manhattan prosecutors who had been working on Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case were abruptly placed on leave Friday by the Justice Department, sources confirmed to The Post.
Andrew Rohrbach, who helped convict Jeffrey Epstein’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking teenage girls, and Celia Cohen, who had worked on several mob cases in recent years, were marched out of the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District at the command of DOJ officials, sources familiar with the matter said.
Friday’s moves, first reported by ABC News, come after the two other prosecutors on the case, Hagan Scotten and Derek Wikstrom, had been placed on paid administrative leave last month.
The then second-in-command at DOJ, Emil Bove — formerly one of Trump’s lawyers in his hush money case — wrote at the time that Scotten and Wikstrom had refused an order to move to toss Adams’ case, which Bove claims is a “politically motivated prosecution.”
Scotten resigned soon afterward and called the order to toss Adams’ charges of taking bribes and illegal campaign cash from Turks a “serious mistake” that will keep Hizzoner beholden to President Trump.
The government’s plan to leave open the possibility of re-indicting Adams later is a “dismissal-with-leverage” gambit that keeps Adams wrapped tightly around Trump’s finger, Scotten fumed.
“Any assistant US attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way,” he wrote.
“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion,” he added.
“But it was never going to be me.”
DOJ officials did not respond to a request for comment on why Rohrbach and Cohen were placed on leave.