(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.
The Justice Department declined to comment. Cheung didn’t respond to a request for comment from CNN Tuesday morning.
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.â€
This story is breaking and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
