Criminal Chief Leaving DC US Attorney’s Office Amid Turmoil (1)

A top prosecutor overseeing criminal cases at the US Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., is leaving following a dispute over a requested investigation into a Biden-era government contract award, emails obtained by Bloomberg Law show.

In a letter on Tuesday to interim US Attorney Ed Martin tendering her resignation, Criminal Division chief Denise Cheung described a disagreement between the two in drafting a so-called “freeze letter” to a bank to seize certain assets. This letter was part of an inquiry into whether a federal agency had illegally awarded a contract. The bank and the agency weren’t identified.

Cheung said she didn’t believe there was enough evidence to justify opening a grand jury investigation. And when she refused to use stronger language in a request to a bank to seize the accounts, Martin asked her to resign, according to her letter.

The D.C. US Attorney’s office and Cheung didn’t return requests for comment.

Cheung’s exit comes amid turmoil at the Justice Department. Several senior leaders have been forced out in recent weeks. Manhattan’s interim chief federal prosecutor and other DOJ officials stepped down last week in protest after they were asked to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Her departure also comes a day after President Donald Trump announced plans to nominate Martin to lead the D.C. US Attorney’s Office, which oversaw prosecutions of more than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants

A former advocate for Jan. 6 defendants, Martin has overseen the dismissal of hundreds of pending cases following Trump’s proclamation pardoning nearly all Jan. 6 rioters. He has also launched an internal investigation into some of the Jan. 6 prosecutions and warned the office that anyone who doesn’t cooperate will be seen as “insubordinate.” The Justice Department has since fired over a dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors from the office.

Evidence Dispute

According to her resignation letter, the request to investigate the agency contract award came from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s office. After reviewing documentation and conferring with others in the office with “substantial white collar criminal prosecution experience,” Cheung said she determined the existing documents didn’t meet the threshold to open a grand jury investigation.

However, a representative for Bove’s office “stated that he believed sufficient predication existed,” she said.

Cheung said she led the process of drafting a letter to a bank to freeze the relevant accounts. She sent the FBI’s Washington office language stating that prosecutors believe there “may be conduct that constitutes potential violations” of criminal laws against fraud “that merits additional investigation.”

But Cheung said Martin, in a call on Monday, expressed “dissatisfaction” with the freeze letter’s language and asked that a second letter be issued ordering the bank not to release funds in certain accounts due to an ongoing criminal investigation.

“As I shared with you, at this juncture, based upon the evidence I have reviewed, I still do not believe that there is sufficient evidence to issue the letter you described, including sufficient evidence to tell the bank that there is probable cause to seize the particular accounts identified,” she wrote. “Because I believed that I lacked the legal authority to issue such a letter, I told you that I would not do so. You then asked for my resignation.”

Farewell Message

Cheung also announced her departure in an office-wide email sent Tuesday, with the subject line “Farewell,” but didn’t explain why she was leaving in that email.

Cheung wrote in her farewell email that when she started as an assistant U.S. attorney, she “took an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution” and has “executed this duty faithfully during my tenure.”

“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. All that we do is rooted in following the facts and the law and complying with our moral, ethical, and legal obligations,” Cheung wrote.

Cheung started working at the D.C. US Attorney’s office in 2000 and has spent most of her professional career at the Justice Department, according to her email.