Trump's top prosecutor in Washington demotes senior leaders, sources say

By Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump's top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., demoted several senior leaders to entry-level positions on Friday as he continued his shakeup of one of the Justice Department's most crucial offices, according to three sources and an email seen by Reuters.

Ed Martin, the interim U.S. Attorney in charge of the Justice Department's Washington office, told top leaders in the fraud, public corruption and civil rights section that they would be assigned to handle relatively low-level cases.

"I must assign attorneys where I assess there is need and where I believe each can contribute," Martin wrote in an email seen by Reuters. "Therefore, I am assigning you to Misdemeanors effective immediately."

He added that the moves were "not temporary."

Those demoted include Kathryn Rakoczy, one of the lead prosecutors who secured convictions against several members of the far-right Oath Keepers group for plotting to use force to help Trump remain in power after he lost the 2020 election, the sources said.

Also demoted was Elizabeth Aloi, who prosecuted former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro for defying a congressional subpoena.

Martin told them they would be reassigned to entry-level jobs, either by serving as line prosecutors or processing new cases and handling warrant requests, said the sources, who spoke anonymously because the personnel moves are not public.

"People can be fairly described as utterly shocked," one of the sources told Reuters, saying the people targeted were keeping the office afloat. The office, the source added, was in "chaos."

Martin's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The fraud, public corruption and civil rights section of the office handles politically sensitive investigations involving government officials, as well as police misconduct prosecutions.

As the top federal prosecutor in Washington, Martin plays a crucial role in helping the Trump administration carry out its agenda, which critics fear will be used to seek retribution against political enemies.

Martin, who worked to advance Trump's false claims of a stolen 2020 election and admitted to being present during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, has threatened investigations of members of Congress for political rhetoric and announced plans to open criminal investigations at the behest of Elon Musk.

Earlier this month, his office's top criminal chief, Denise Cheung, resigned after she said she was pressured to launch a criminal probe and freeze assets of a grant awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency during Democratic President Joe Biden's tenure, even though there was no evidence of a crime.

The demotions come several weeks after more than a dozen probationary federal prosecutors who worked on January 6, 2021, prosecutions were fired specifically for that work.    

Early in his tenure, Martin attended a ceremony at the Oval Office as Trump pardoned two ex-police officers prosecuted by his office who were convicted in the 2020 murder of a 20-year-old Black man named Karon Hylton-Brown, and later bragged about it in an office-wide email seen by Reuters.

He also launched an internal inquiry into the decision to charge some rioters at the Capitol with obstruction.

In addition to the demotions in the fraud, public corruption and civil rights section, Martin also demoted Greg Rosen, who oversaw the Capitol siege cases, and the two top prosecutors in charge of the  major federal crimes section.

Jason McCullough, a prosecutor who helped secured convictions against the Proud Boys for plotting to storm the Capitol and block Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election, was also demoted, two of the sources said.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward in Washington; editing by Andy Sullivan and Nia Williams)