Another Prominent Fed Prosecutor Resigns In Protest Of Trump Admin Political Interference

A federal prosecutor in charge of the criminal division in the Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office resigned on Tuesday following her refusal to follow a Donald Trump administration directive to freeze assets of a Biden-era administration grant initiative, the Washington Post and Reuters reported. 

The resignation is the latest of several similar resignations and dismissals at the Justice Department in recent days and the most recent example of a DOJ career prosecutor resigning to resist improper political interference from the Trump administration. The resignation highlights the ongoing erosion of Justice Department independence from the White House under Trump. 

Denise Cheung reportedly refused an order from Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin to launch an investigation into the Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency funding decisions. Details are still unfolding, but specifically, the resignation is connected to the Justice Department’s recent effort to assist EPA administrator Lee Zeldin’s push to rescind $20 billion in grants already awarded by the Biden administration to fund climate projects. 

The former New York congressman and current EPA administrator posted a video on Twitter last week claiming, without evidence, that the Biden administration had improperly doled out the grants before the former president left office. In the video, Zeldin announced his plans to refer the matter to the inspector general’s office and to work with the DOJ on clawing back the money and contracts tied to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. DOJ has the authority to freeze assets but only after it has found evidence that the funds are tied to criminal activity, according to the Post. 

Cheung and Martin reportedly disagreed about “whether she was delaying efforts to order a financial institution to halt spending transfers pending further investigation, or seeking to reach a compromise by taking steps she believed were ethical and appropriate,” in the Washington Post’s words. 

In an email to colleagues, obtained by the Post, Cheung did not specify her reason for resigning. “I took an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution, and I have executed this duty faithfully,” the email reads. 

In a letter offering her resignation to Martin, Cheung reportedly made it clear she was resigning due to the improper request from the Trump administration, Reuters reported.

Per Reuters: 

In a letter to the interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin reviewed by Reuters, the office’s criminal chief Denise Cheung wrote that the Trump administration had ordered her to investigate a government contract awarded during Joe Biden’s administration and pursue a freeze of the recipient’s assets.

She said that neither request was supported by the evidence, which she said she was provided with by the Deputy Attorney General’s office.

Neither the White House nor the Justice Department responded to TPM’s request for comment. 

Cheung’s resignation comes only one day after President Donald Trump announced the nomination of Martin to permanently head the D.C. US Attorney’s  office. His chances of being confirmed in the Senate are unclear.  

Martin, who has been a face of the ‘Stop the Steal Movement’ also has a long history of January 6 denialism and has defended January 6 rioters in court. Martin had tasked Cheung and another prosecutor with investigating how January 6 prosecutors charged rioters from that day. 

Cheung’s resignation comes against the backdrop of recent resignations of federal prosecutors who refused to comply with orders from acting deputy AG Bove, to dismiss the criminal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams.