A DOJ prosecutor resigned yesterday. In her resignation email, she stated that Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, wanted her to request that the court issue a bank freeze on the account of a political appointee.
In an email obtained by CBS News, Denise Cheung notified her colleagues Tuesday morning that she is stepping down. ‘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,’ the email said.
[…]
[Ed] Martin was a key figure in the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement in 2020, and defended many Jan. 6 defendants. His social media posts have celebrated Elon Musk and other Trump allies since he has been in office, and he has vowed to investigate those who interfere with Musk’s [hostile takeover].
Cheung stated that there was not evidence of a crime. She said she could not file a request that bank assets be frozen, alleging someone is criminal, if there is no evidence of being a criminal.
Cheung wrote that she was asked on Monday to review documentation provided by the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) — currently headed by acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove — “to open a criminal investigation into whether a contract had been unlawfully awarded by an executive agency” during former President Joe Biden’s administration. Her letter did not specify the grants at issue, but three sources told NBC News it had to do with environmental grants issued during the Biden administration.
The White House has allegedly indicated that crime now could be defined politically by Martin as simply diversity or concern for others, meaning the act of supporting or of being non-white, as sufficient cause for federal investigation and prosecution. More pointedly, trying to criminalize a politician for being a politician, or an investigator for doing their job – not because of evidence of a crime – brings to mind a sudden and secretive arrest reported from Indiana.
It also echoes Nixon-era tactics that were known as a “war on drugs”, where Blacks and political opponents were targeted immorally.
At that time the GOP intentionally and tactically said their war was about “drugs” because they didn’t think the public would accept it being called a war on Blacks and democracy.
Today the war is on diversity, which doesn’t even hide intentions of it being the “only white men rule”.
Historians may recall that Nixon’s administration, while themselves extremely racist, back then saw Trump as too overtly racist (e.g. America First) for even their taste and sued him for discrimination.