Danielle Sassoon is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. She is the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, having served in early 2025. Prior to that, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney for about eight and a half years. As a member of the Violent and Organized Crime Unit, she tried murder and racketeering cases, and prosecuted Lawrence Ray for racketeering conspiracy, extortion, forced labor, and sex trafficking, related to his abuse and exploitation of his daughter’s college roommates and others.  As a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, she investigated and prosecuted Samuel Bankman-Fried and others for the multi-billion-dollar fraud on customers of FTX.com. Prior to assuming the role of United States Attorney, Ms. Sassoon served as Co-Chief of Criminal Appeals. In 2024, she was awarded the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Criminal Investigation. In 2023, she was awarded the Women in Federal Law Enforcement Top Prosecutor Award.

Ms. Sassoon graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 2008 and from Yale Law School in 2011. Following graduation from law school, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and to the Honorable Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court.