One other prime federal prosecutor has resigned from the US Division of Justice amid stress from the administration of President Donald Trump.
The Reuters information company reported that Denise Cheung left her submit on Tuesday, after main the felony division of the US Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Columbia.
In her resignation letter, obtained by a number of US information companies, she highlighted her lengthy profession in civil service.
“I’ve been proud to serve on the U.S. Division of Justice and this workplace for over 24 years,” Cheung wrote.
“I took an oath of workplace to assist and defend the Structure, and I’ve executed this obligation faithfully.”
However she defined she was ordered to resign after she refused to launch a felony probe she felt was not merited.
The requested probe needed to do with a contract awarded underneath the administration of Trump’s predecessor and former election rival, Democrat Joe Biden.
Cheung wrote that she had been requested to launch a grand jury investigation into the legality of the contract. However she indicated that, after analysis, she discovered no proof to justify such a probe.
Then she was requested to hunt an asset freeze, stopping funds from being disbursed underneath the contract.
So Cheung despatched the financial institution concerned a letter “recommending a 30-day administrative freeze on sure belongings”.
However officers within the Trump administration pushed her to ship a second letter, specifying that the request got here as a part of a felony investigation.
Cheung recognized Ed Martin, the interim head of the US Lawyer’s Workplace in Washington, DC, as one of many officers giving her orders. She addressed her letter to him.
“Once I defined that the quantum of proof didn’t assist that motion, you acknowledged that you simply believed that there was enough proof,” she wrote.
“Primarily based upon the proof I’ve reviewed, I nonetheless don’t imagine there’s enough proof to concern the letter you described, together with enough proof to inform the financial institution there’s possible trigger to grab the actual accounts recognized.”
Trump announced on Monday that he had nominated Martin to tackle the US lawyer position completely.
A far-right activist, Martin had helped increase cash for rioters concerned within the assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, which was led by Trump supporters.
He additionally performed a task in organising a “Cease the Steal” rally, which unfold the false declare that Trump’s defeat in 2020 was as a result of voter fraud.
Cheung stated her actions have been essential to uphold the requirements of the US lawyer’s workplace. “All that we do is rooted in following the information and the legislation and complying with our ethical, moral and authorized obligations,” she wrote.
Her departure on Tuesday was the newest in a collection of resignations from the Justice Division, as prosecutors denounce actions they think about unethical underneath Trump.
Final week, no less than seven Justice Division legal professionals stop their posts after the Trump administration known as for them to drop corruption costs in opposition to New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams.
Trump and Adams had not too long ago had a rapprochement, with the mayor agreeing to take part within the president’s immigration initiatives.
A number of of the Justice Division legal professionals indicated that the choice to drop the fees in opposition to Adams was politically motivated, quite than based mostly on the proof.
“Any assistant U.S. lawyer would know that our legal guidelines and traditions don’t permit utilizing the prosecutorial energy to affect different residents, a lot much less elected officers, on this method,” the lead prosecutor, Hagan Scotten, stated in his resignation letter.
“If no lawyer inside earshot of the President is prepared to provide him that recommendation, then I count on you’ll ultimately discover somebody who’s sufficient of a idiot, or sufficient of a coward, to file your movement. Nevertheless it was by no means going to be me.”
The appearing commissioner of the Social Safety Administration, Michelle King, additionally resigned over the weekend within the wake of makes an attempt by the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) to entry delicate private info.
On Tuesday, in a information convention from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump briefly addressed King’s departure, implying she had not willingly resigned.
“Whenever you hearth someone, they all the time resign, after which they are saying, ‘We resigned,’” he stated, accusing the Social Safety Administration of “huge fraud”. He didn’t supply proof to substantiate that declare, although.
