A senior U.S. prosecutor resigned on Feb. 18 after she was allegedly asked to launch an investigation into a contract awarded while President Joe Biden was still in office.
Denise Cheung stepped down from her post as chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia’s Criminal Division.
In a letter to interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin, Cheung said that she'd been ordered by the Trump administration to investigate a government contract awarded during the Biden administration and pursue a freeze of the recipient’s assets.
Cheung described the demands—which she said came from the office of acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove—as improper and not supported by evidence.
Cheung did not detail which agency contract she was requested to probe, nor which entity received the contract.
“I have been proud to serve at the U.S. Department of Justice and this office for over 24 years,” Cheung wrote in her letter.
“During my tenure, which has spanned over many different administrations, I have always been guided by the oath I took ... to support and defend the Constitution.”
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia declined to comment.
The office of the deputy attorney general did not return an inquiry.
Cheung could not be reached for comment.
She is the latest U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) official to step down since President Donald Trump took office in January.
Danielle Sassoon, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, resigned recently after declining to obey a directive from Bove to move to dismiss criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Sassoon and Hagan Scotten, who worked in the same office, both said they resigned because they disagreed with the directive.
“Because the law does not support a dismissal, and because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged, I cannot agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations,” Sassoon wrote.
Bove has said that the charges, brought in late 2024 while Biden was still president, should be tossed in part because they restricted the mayor’s ability to govern New York City, including dealing with illegal immigration.
John Keller, acting head of the DOJ’s public corruption unit, and Kevin Driscoll, a senior official in the DOJ’s criminal division, also recently stepped down following Bove’s directive.
The reason for the resignations has not been disclosed. Keller declined to comment while Driscoll could not be reached.
