WABC- Days after the Justice Department assigned its Weaponization Working Group to open an investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James, the group’s director, Ed Martin, sent a letter calling for her resignation — leapfrogging multiple steps federal prosecutors ordinarily undertake to determine whether the subject of an investigation engaged in criminal activity.
The letter was sent last week to James’ attorney, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by ABC News.
James’ legal team says it violates Justice Department norms and ethics rules.
Federal prosecutors issued subpoenas earlier this month as part of a civil rights investigation into James’ business fraud case against President Donald Trump and her office’s corruption case against the National Rifle Association, ABC News previously reported.
Trump and his eldest sons were found liable last year for 10 years of fraud that inflated the president’s net worth, and the case is now on appeal. James earlier won a $4 million judgment against NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, after a jury found that he and others had misappropriating donor funds to finance luxury items for themselves.
Martin is also investigating two properties James owns in New York and Virginia.
The inquiries into James are part of a retribution battle President Trump promised to wage against perceived adversaries, which he tapped Martin to help lead.
In neither case has James been formally accused of wrongdoing, but Martin in his letter said her resignation would serve the national interest.
“Her resignation from office would give the people of New York and America more peace than proceeding. I would take this as an act of good faith,” Martin wrote.
On Aug. 15, three days after he sent the letter, Martin showed up wearing a trench coat outside James’ Brooklyn home and posed for a New York Post photographer who was there waiting.
When a neighbor asked what he was doing, Martin replied, “I’m just looking at houses,” but he later told Fox News, “I’m a prosecutor … I wanted to lay eyes on it … I wanted to see the property.”
The staged visit appeared to violate Justice Department protocol and both Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, told Martin the visit was unhelpful and counterproductive, multiple sources told ABC News.
The Justice Department declined to comment. Martin did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Abbe Lowell, an attorney for James, said Martin’s conduct demonstrates that he is not conducting a serious investigation.
“[D]espite the lack of evidence or law, you will take whatever actions you have been directed to take to make good on President Trump’s and Attorney General Bondi’s calls for revenge for that reason alone,” Lowell said in a letter to Martin sent Monday, a copy of which ABC News reviewed.
“Just four days into your role, no search for facts or questions of law; instead, you twice called for Ms. James to resign. DOJ has firm policies against using investigations and against using prosecutorial power for achieving political ends,” Lowell wrote.
