Senior DOJ prosecutor quit after being told to investigate Biden climate spending, sources say

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.