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Senior DOJ prosecutor quit after being told to investigate Biden climate spending, sources say

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CNN  — The top criminal prosecutor in the Washington, DC, US Attorney’s 
Office, Denise Cheung, resigned Tuesday after declining a request from her 
Trump-appointed superiors to open a grand jury investigation that she 
viewed as premature, according to multiple people familiar with the 
matter.

The direction originated from Emil Bove, the department’s acting deputy 
attorney general, to Ed Martin, whom President Donald Trump has nominated 
to be the permanent DC US Attorney.

Cheung, a long-time DOJ employee, had been asked to shepherd an 
investigation into an Environmental Protection Agency funding decision 
during the Biden administration.

She refused the order and resigned, in part because she believed there 
wasn’t sufficient evidence to take that step at the time, as well as 
seeking to protect lower-level prosecutors from the work, source said.

The Trump administration has consistently criticized Biden’s spending on 
environmental programs. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin’s said he has had 
“found” $20 billion worth of funding from former President Joe Biden’s 
2022 climate law in a Citibank account, and wanted to return the money to 
the US Treasury.

The EPA then announced in a press release the EPA would “work with the US 
Department of Justice” on the matter. CNN has asked EPA for comment.

Cheung didn’t respond to a request for comment from CNN Tuesday morning.

In a statement to CNN, a Justice Department spokesperson said: “Refusing a 
basic request to pause an investigation so officials can examine the 
potential waste of government funds is not an act of heroism – just a 
failure to follow chain of command.”

Zeldin has suggested the funding was rushed to eight non-profits to 
distribute at the end of the Biden administration through the Inflation 
Reduction Act, but a former EPA official responsible for implementing the 
funding told CNN last week it wasn’t rushed or set up nefariously.

Cheung sent a farewell message office-wide on Tuesday morning. She didn’t 
publicly indicate her reason for leaving.

Cheung’s departure also comes at a time of roiling change across the DOJ, 
with prosecutors deemed to be untrustworthy being fired, and ethical 
clashes erupting between Trump’s hand-picked political appointees and 
long-time federal prosecutors.

Bove last week presided over a public row with prosecutors in New York and 
Washington over his order to dismiss charges against New York City Mayor 
Eric Adams.

Martin, taking the helm of the DC US Attorney’s Office, has supported 
unwinding all January 6 criminal cases that the office brought. He had 
enlisted Cheung and another career prosecutor in the office to look at how 
prosecutors charged January 6 rioters with a felony obstruction charge 
that the Supreme Court later overturned.

“When I started as an AUSA, I took an oath of office to support and defend 
the Constitution, and I have executed this duty faithfully during my 
tenure, which has spanned through numerous Administrations,” Cheung wrote 
in her sign-off email to her colleagues. “I know that all of the AUSAs in 
the office continue to honor their oaths on a daily basis, just as I know 
that you have always conducted yourself with the utmost integrity.”

"Except when it came to the Clintons, Obamas, Pelosis, Bidens and Trump."

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/justice-department-dc-criminal-
division/index.html

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Senior DOJ prosecutor quit after being told to investigate Biden climate spending, sources say "P. Coonan" <nospam@ix.netcom.com> - 2025-02-19 22:04 +0000

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