2/18/2025

16 Responses to “Yet Another DOJ Prosecutor Resigns”

1. Hello.

   Dana (d4d33b) — 2/18/2025 @ 8:30 am

   
   

2. It will be pretty much the way the LA DA’s office would have been under Gascon had line prosecutors resigned.

   Are you sure this wasn’t the plan all along?

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 2/18/2025 @ 8:46 am

   
   

3. On the other side we find out that one of Biden’s last acts was to free Leonard Peltier, over the objections of the FBI and prosecutors. No one resigned over it though.

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 2/18/2025 @ 8:50 am

   
   

4. According to the report, Cheung does not know which executive branch agency contract was at the heart of the request, or which entity received the government contract.

   The report doesn’t actually say that. Maybe it’s been edited.

   The letter did not specify which executive branch agency contract was at the heart of the request, or which entity received the government contract.

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 2/18/2025 @ 8:58 am

   
   

5. Trump nominates ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer who advocated for Jan. 6 defendants to be D.C.’s top prosecutor
   ………..
   Trump made the announcement less than three days after the nominee, Ed Martin, posted that he would be investigating Jack Smith and a law firm that gave the former special counsel pro bono legal services.

   Referring to Martin as “highly respected,” Trump wrote on X that Martin “has been doing a great job as Interim U.S. Attorney, fighting tirelessly to restore Law and Order, and make our Nation’s Capital Safe and Beautiful Again.”

   Martin posted Friday on X, the platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk, that his office would be investigating Smith and the law firm of Covington & Burling over pro bono legal services Smith received during a time when Trump was openly vilifying him and suggesting he and his team should be locked up.

   “Save your receipts, Smith and Covington,” Martin posted from his official X account Friday evening. “We’ll be in touch soon. #NoOneIsAboveTheLaw.”

   Martin called on “die-hard true Americans” to work until their “last breath” to “stop the steal” in a speech at the U.S. Capitol on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. ……..

   Trump made the announcement less than three days after the nominee, Ed Martin, posted that he would be investigating Jack Smith and a law firm that gave the former special counsel pro bono legal services.

   Referring to Martin as “highly respected,” Trump wrote on X that Martin “has been doing a great job as Interim U.S. Attorney, fighting tirelessly to restore Law and Order, and make our Nation’s Capital Safe and Beautiful Again.”
   ……….
   Martin called on “die-hard true Americans” to work until their “last breath” to “stop the steal” in a speech at the U.S. Capitol on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. ……..
   ……….
   Martin has held the critical position on a temporary basis since Inauguration Day, when Trump mass pardoned violent Jan. 6 rioters like Jose Padilla (not the convicted terrorist), who was convicted of assaulting officers and sentenced to six years in federal prison. Martin’s name was on a government motion to dismiss the Padilla case that was submitted a day after Trump’s pardon, but he was still on file as a defense attorney for Padilla. Martin filed a motion this month to withdraw as Padilla’s defense lawyer, but the court soon advised him that he was “not in good standing” and had to renew his membership.
   ………
   (Former prosecutors in the Capitol Siege Section) also worry that his boisterous social media presence will backfire in the long term and undermine the criminal cases for prosecutors, causing issues with both judges and juries.

   “Prosecutors are supposed to speak in court and in filings, but he has shown himself to be incapable of abiding by that rule,” a federal law enforcement official said. “If the chief law enforcement officer is tweeting about criminal allegations and calling people thugs, he’s tainting the jury pool and giving defense attorneys an argument for change of venue or recusal.”

   Another law enforcement official said, “There is no bottom.”
   ………..

   Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/18/2025 @ 10:06 am

   
   

6. More details:

   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 and then use DOJ’s powers to freeze that funding.
   ……….
   “Earlier yesterday, I was asked to review documentation supplied by the Office of the Deputy Attorney General to open a criminal investigation into whether a contract had been unlawfully awarded by an executive agency before the change in Administration and to issue grand jury subpoenas pursuant to this investigation,” Cheung wrote in a resignation letter to Martin on Tuesday obtained by CNN.

   Cheung noted in her letter that she and other experienced white-collar prosecutors looked at whether the DOJ had met its threshold for a grand jury investigation. While Bove’s office insisted that it had, citing a Project Veritas video, Cheung and others didn’t believe the evidence on hand was enough for a grand jury investigation, her letter and additional sources told CNN.

   She said after the pushback, the Justice Department instead wanted to freeze assets in a bank related to the Biden-era EPA funding.
   ………
   “When I explained that the quantum of evidence did not support that action, you stated that you believed that there was sufficient evidence,” Cheung wrote to Martin.
   ………
   Cheung made clear to Martin she believed there wasn’t enough probable cause to take the prosecutorial steps Martin demanded.

   “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,” she wrote, noting the oath of office she took and an obligation to follow legal ethics and the law.
   ………..

   Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/18/2025 @ 2:06 pm

   
   

7. Trump nominates ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer who advocated for Jan. 6 defendants to be D.C.’s top prosecutor

   Heck, the Democratic Party nominated a woman for President who raised money for BLM rioters.

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 2/18/2025 @ 2:36 pm

   
   

8. Heck, the Democratic Party nominated a woman for President who raised money for BLM rioters.

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 2/18/2025 @ 2:36 pm

   I would ask you for a source but your statement is unsupported by any facts.

   Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/18/2025 @ 2:56 pm

   
   

9. Besides it’s a non-sequitur to the issue at hand.

   Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/18/2025 @ 2:58 pm

   
   

10. “Heck, the Democratic Party nominated a woman for President who raised money for BLM rioters.”

    Nobody who isn’t an ongoing threat or flight risk should be in jail pending trial. This applies to the Jan 6 rioters as well, but their suffering was more valuable to the Republicans than their freedom.

    Davethulhu (14e9e4) — 2/18/2025 @ 3:19 pm

    
    

11. A lefty who quit rather than investigate criminal activity coming from the left.

    I’m shocked that there’s gambling going on at this establishment.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/18/2025 @ 3:49 pm

    
    

12. Davethulhu (14e9e4) — 2/18/2025 @ 3:19 pm

    Nobody who isn’t an ongoing threat or flight risk should be in jail pending trial.

    Some people commit the type of crime that, by it’s very nature, (if true) makes them a danger, especially if nothing immediately happens to them.

    In New York State for many years jail used to be limited only to flight risk. Judges used to get a set high bail ( relying on alleged flight risk.)

    The “bail” reform law of 2019 made many charges ineligible for bail, although, as Andrew Cuomo will tell people, judges could still remand people to jail o grounds of flight risk. (or maybe threatening witnesses)

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 2/18/2025 @ 4:16 pm

    
    

13. I thought the purpose for bail was to keep the accused from being an ongoing threat to the community and ensure presence at trial.

    This doesn’t surprise me. And I’m glad Rob‘s here to show us what lies Trump supporters will tell and believe to justify this sort of thing.

    Time123 (5f025a) — 2/18/2025 @ 4:20 pm

    
    

14. Time123 (5f025a) — 2/18/2025 @ 4:20 pm

    I thought the purpose for bail was to keep the accused from being an ongoing threat to the community and ensure presence at trial.

    Not in New York State (as opposed to the other 49 states and the federal system)

    In New York State, for many years now, keeping the accused from being an ongoing threat to the community was not considered to be a legitimate purpose of bail. Judges, till 2019, got around it, basically by lying about needing to ensure presence at trial, usually by setting bail the person often could not meet or could meet only by paying 10% (which was lost) to a bail bondsman.

    This doesn’t surprise me. And I’m glad Rob‘s here to show us what lies Trump supporters will tell and believe to justify this sort of thing.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 2/18/2025 @ 4:25 pm

    
    

15. Sammy, I continue to be grateful for your participation in this comment section. You are always informative.

    Time123 (cbd27d) — 2/18/2025 @ 5:03 pm

    
    

16. Time123 (5f025a) — 2/18/2025 @ 4:20 pm

    “Trump fired all the IGs”

    lloyd (8a129d) — 2/18/2025 @ 7:04 pm