DC federal prosecutor refuses to comply with Trump administration directive, resigns
The head of the criminal division of the D.C. U.S. attorney's office, Denise Cheung, resigned Tuesday after refusing to comply with a directive from President Donald Trump's new administration, according to multiple media reports.
Daniel Ball, a spokesperson for the office, confirmed Cheung's resignation to Paste BN but declined to comment further.
The directive came from the office's new Trump-appointed leadership, according to CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, which all cited anonymous sources. Cheung's resignation is the latest shakeup to the Justice Department under the new administration. The acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York resigned Thursday after an order from new leadership to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Media outlets offered different accounts of the nature of the directive that preceded Cheung's resignation: CNN said she refused to open a grand jury investigation into an environmental funding decision made by former President Joe Biden's administration, while the Washington Post said she refused to freeze the assets of a multibillion-dollar Biden administration environmental grant initiative. The New York Times didn't specify in its initial report what directive Cheung refused to comply with.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department sent termination letters to more than a dozen officials who helped special counsel Jack Smith investigate and charge Trump in two cases before he won the November presidential election. A department official told Paste BN in a statement the terminations were made out of concern that the officials wouldn't faithfully implement Trump's agenda.
Ed Martin, who is currently acting U.S. attorney for D.C. and has been nominated by Trump to fill the role, opened a probe into the Justice Department's decision to bring felony obstruction charges against hundreds of individuals who were allegedly involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Martin previously represented Jan. 6 defendants, almost all of whom received full pardons on Trump's first day back in office.
Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and defense lawyer for Trump during his first impeachment trial as president, was confirmed as U.S. attorney general earlier this month. She swiftly issued a flurry of directives, including creating a “Weaponization Working Group” to investigate prosecutions against Trump that she said were politicized.