Prime felony prosecutor in U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in D.C. resigns
Washington — The top of the felony division within the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in Washington, D.C, has resigned her publish, the newest in a string of Justice Division officers to depart beneath the Trump administration.
In an e-mail obtained by CBS Information, Denise Cheung notified her colleagues Tuesday morning that she is stepping down. “I took an oath of workplace to assist and defend the Structure and I’ve executed this obligation faithfully throughout my tenure, which has spanned via quite a few Administrations,” the e-mail stated.
Cheung didn’t specify a purpose for her departure in her e-mail.
Her resolution follows a flurry of resignations by prosecutors in New York and officers at Justice Division headquarters final week, who stepped all the way down to protest a directive from the performing deputy lawyer basic to drop the case in opposition to New York Mayor Eric Adams.
As chief of the felony division on the D.C. U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, Cheung had sweeping oversight over nationwide safety instances, violent crimes prosecutions and different main investigations, together with lots of the instances associated to the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Her resignation comes someday after President Trump introduced he would nominate Ed Martin to change into the U.S. lawyer within the nation’s capital. Martin has been serving within the function in a brief capability since Mr. Trump took workplace.
Martin was a key determine within the “Cease the Steal” motion in 2020, and defended many Jan. 6 defendants. His social media posts have celebrated Elon Musk and different Trump allies since he has been in workplace, and he has vowed to research those that intrude with Musk’s work.
Martin has additionally helped expedite the closure of Jan. 6 instances, together with these by which he as soon as served as a protection lawyer. A number of prosecutors in his workplace who labored on these instances have been purged within the opening days of the Trump administration.
