The three remaining federal prosecutors in the "Turkish House" bribery case brought against New York City Mayor Eric Adams have resigned, Reuters has reported.

In September, prosecutors in New York filed an indictment charging Adams with accepting bribes from Turkish nationals in exchange for providing an illegal permit that enabled the opening of the Turkish House (Turkevi) consulate in the city despite unresolved safety concerns.

Soon after Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20 for a second term as US president, the prosecutors were placed on administrative leave after they refused to drop the charges.

'No wrongdoing, so no confession'

The US Justice Department pressured the prosecutors in question, namely Celia V. Cohen, Andrew Rohrbach and Derek Wikstrom, to admit wrongdoing in refusing to drop the case, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

“It is now clear that one of the preconditions you have placed on our returning to the office is that we must express regret and admit some wrongdoing,” the prosecutors noted in the letter sent to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“We will not confess wrongdoing when there was none,” they added.

It was Blanche who placed the trio on administrative leave.

Eleven resignations in all

So far, five prosecutors as well as six attorneys have resigned in protest at Blanche’s pressure in relation to the Adams case.

It was on April 2 that a district judge in Manhattan, Dale Ho, dropped the case at the request of the Justice Department.