By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. prosecutor in Washington launched an investigation on Wednesday into threats against federal workers – and named Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer as a target of the probe – after people working in Elon Musk’s drive to downsize and overhaul the government said they had been threatened.
Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin said in an email seen by Reuters that the probe was inspired by a conversation with an employee of billionaire Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE – an entity created by Republican President Donald Trump.
DOGE has triggered a wave of layoffs across the federal government.
“Late last night I took a call from a senior DOGE staffer. We spoke about some pressing tech issues and then he told me about threats against DOGE workers. It is despicable that these men and women are being threatened,” Martin said in the email.
Martin named the initiative “Operation Whirlwind,” saying that Schumer, the top Democrat in the Republican-led U.S. Senate, is the subject of a threats investigation. Schumer spoke out against Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh at a 2020 abortion rights rally by saying: “You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.”
“I reached out to Senator Schumer to investigate his threats,” Martin said. “He has not yet responded to me.”
A Schumer representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Martin this month announced on social media that he was launching a criminal investigation based on a referral from Musk alleging government workers were stealing property and making threats. His post on Musk’s X platform ran afoul of numerous Justice Department rules governing the use of social media and prohibitions against publicly discussing sensitive non-public information.
Prior to being nominated by Trump as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Martin vocally advocated for the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a failed bid to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over Trump. Trump last month gave clemency to about 1,600 people charged in the riot.
On Tuesday, the top prosecutor in Martin’s office overseeing criminal cases resigned after she said Martin pressured her to investigate a contract awarded during President Joe Biden’s tenure and freeze the assets of the contract’s recipient, even though there was not enough evidence to do so.
In his email on Wednesday, Martin said that his office has been “flooded with threats against those who helped free the January 6 prisoners.”
However, Martin failed to mention the threats that federal prosecutors, FBI agents and judges are continuing to receive online from January 6 defendants after Trump granted them clemency on his first day back in office.
A spokesperson for Martin’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; additional reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Scott Malone and Will Dunham)
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