“… In 2016, during a corruption investigation into Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2013 campaign fund-raising, an F.B.I. agent surprised Mr. Bove’s wife, a policy adviser to the mayor, with a request that she turn over records of her communications, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
(There was no allegation of wrongdoing by Mr. Bove’s wife, and
Mr. de Blasio was never charged.)
Mr. Bove believed that approach, while not technically improper, was too aggressive and needlessly traumatized his family. He made it clear that he had only wanted a heads-up and would never have tipped off his wife beforehand.
His superiors countered by saying that alerting him could have potentially compromised a sensitive political investigation.
His reaction was instant and emotional. He briefly considered quitting, and was so upset that he took several days off to clear his head. That did not sit well with some of his colleagues who believed he had overreacted, those people said.
If his aggressiveness fueled his success inside the office, it also caused problems and Mr. Bove was advised to take steps to tone down his behavior.
By all accounts, he succeeded,
working on a criminal case alongside Nicolas Roos and Danielle R. Sassoon, who this month
resigned as interim U.S. attorney at the Southern District rather than sign off on Mr. Bove’s order to dismiss the Adams case. …”
