WASHINGTON — A top prosecutor in DC’s US attorney’s office resigned Tuesday after refusing to help launch an investigation into a Biden administration environmental contract.
Denise Cheung quit after being asked to issue grand jury subpoenas to determine whether “a contract had been unlawfully awarded,” she wrote in her resignation letter.
Cheung wrote that she believed there was not “sufficient evidence … including sufficient evidence to tell the bank that there is probable cause to seize the particular accounts identified.”
Cheung said she had been ordered to open a probe into a contract of which she believed the request was not supported by evidence. AP“I was told that there was time sensitivity and action had to be taken that day because there was concern that contract awardees could continue to draw down on accounts handled by the bank handling the disbursements,” she wrote to acting DC US attorney Ed Martin.
“When I explained that the quantum of evidence did not support that action, you stated that you believed that there was sufficient evidence. You also accused me about [sic] wasting five hours of the day ‘doing nothing’ except trying to get what the FBI and I wanted, but not what you wanted.”
It was not immediately clear which contract was in dispute.
The Biden administration handed out billions in environmental grants shortly before President Trump re-entered the White House.
“Refusing a basic request to pause an investigation so officials can examine the potential waste of government funds is not an act of heroism,” a Justice Department spokesman said, “just a failure to follow chain of command.”
Her resignation is the latest by career Justice Department prosecutors to protest what they see as improper political interference by the Trump administration in criminal investigations. APCheung oversaw criminal cases at the DC prosecutor’s office, which uniquely handles both local and federal matters in the nation’s capital, and had worked there for 24 years.
“Whether it was prosecuting homicide cases in the Superior Court Division or investigating international terrorism cases in the Criminal Division, I have always worked to enforce the rule of law, to vindicate the rights of victims, and to protect the security of the nation,” she wrote to Martin.
The DC US attorney’s office has been beset by controversy for years over its decision not to prosecute cases, including during a period under Biden that saw a spike in violent crimes including murders while other major cities reported declines.
Cheung said she was ordered to launch a grand jury investigation into whether the contract was unlawfully awarded during the Biden administration. Getty ImagesIn fiscal year 2022, 67% of cases featuring an arrest were not charged by the DC US attorney’s office — which then-US attorney Matthew Graves attributed in part to the fact that DC’s crime lab had lost its certification.
The non-prosecution rate dipped to 56% in fiscal year 2023.
Cheung resigned after seven DOJ prosecutors at the Manhattan US attorney’s office and Main Justice resigned last week in protest of orders to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat.
Trump appointees moved to drop that case citing Adams’ cooperation with an ongoing immigration crackdown and claims that the Biden Justice Department may have brought the prosecution in retaliation for the mayor’s criticism of the then-president’s border policies.
