DOJ’s EPA Climate Funding Probe: The Legal, Political, and Environmental Brawl of 2025
By Justin Jest – Gonzo Journalist, Reluctant Realist, Connoisseur of Chaos
Buckle up, dear reader, because this is where the American government turns into a high-speed, multi-car wreck on the highway of accountability.
We have a top prosecutor resigning in protest, a climate funding probe built on a right-wing sting operation, a DOJ boss playing God with prosecutions, and an EPA chief trying to rip $20 billion in green energy funds out of the hands of nonprofits like a mugger in broad daylight.
This is not just Washington doing Washington things—this is a full-scale war over the very structure of power: who gets prosecuted, who gets paid, and whether the executive branch can rewrite the past while setting fire to the future.
Denise Cheung: The Prosecutor Who Walked Away from a Political Hit Job
Denise Cheung was not some rookie prosecutor. She spent two decades at the DOJ, overseeing some of the biggest federal cases in D.C.—from public corruption to January 6 prosecutions. She was the kind of hard-nosed prosecutor who made criminals sweat and judges nod in approval.
So when Cheung resigned abruptly on February 18, 2025, it sent shockwaves through the Justice Department. The reason? She refused to sign off on a criminal probe into Biden-era climate funding—a probe pushed by Trump-appointed superiors who wanted a grand jury investigation into a $20 billion EPA program based on a single, highly questionable Project Veritas video.
Let’s pause here.
The DOJ wanted to use a heavily edited sting operation by a conservative activist group as probable cause to launch a grand jury? That’s like opening a murder investigation based on a blurry Bigfoot video.
Cheung reviewed the so-called “evidence” and concluded there was nothing there—no fraud, no criminal act, just bureaucratic speed and political paranoia. The DOJ brass didn’t care. They wanted the case, and they wanted it now.
When Cheung pushed back, DOJ leadership tried a different route—they ordered a freeze on the climate funds anyway, telling Citibank (which was managing the funds) that the money was under investigation. Cheung again refused, calling the legal justification nonsense.
That’s when things got nasty.
Her boss, interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, accused her of “wasting five hours” by insisting on due process instead of just doing what they wanted. Martin demanded she resign. So she did.
Her farewell email was a mic-drop moment:
“I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. I have executed this duty faithfully during my tenure.”
Translation: This DOJ is playing dirty, and I refuse to be part of it.
Emil Bove: Trump’s Personal Lawyer Turned America’s Prosecutor-In-Chief
Here’s where things get really twisted. Emil Bove, the man calling the shots in DOJ, was once a respected prosecutor. He took down drug lords, terrorists, and white-collar criminals in the Southern District of New York. But then, he jumped ship to work as Trump’s personal legal fixer—the kind of move that would make Roy Cohn’s ghost nod in approval.
Now, with Trump back in the White House, Bove isn’t just cleaning house—he’s setting it on fire.
- He personally intervened to kill the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, claiming that Adams needed to be “free” to help Trump’s immigration crackdown.
- He forced out multiple prosecutors in D.C. and New York, replacing them with political appointees who would be more “flexible” in carrying out Trump’s demands.
- And now, he’s leading the climate fund crusade, treating a legally authorized program as a criminal conspiracy because the money went to nonprofits instead of fossil fuel executives.
Bove doesn’t care about facts. He doesn’t care about precedent. He cares about winning the ideological war. He’s the most powerful prosecutor in America, and he’s using that power to rewrite the Justice Department into Trump’s personal law firm.
EPA: From Climate Protection to Political Payback
Lee Zeldin: The Man Who Wants to Erase “Climate” from the EPA
Lee Zeldin wasn’t put in charge of the EPA to protect the environment. He was put there to dismantle it.
The first thing he did? Cancel a $50 million environmental justice grant—not because the funds were misused, but because the organization receiving them posted pro-Palestinian messages on social media.
The second thing? Freeze all $20 billion of Biden’s climate bank funding, claiming it was a “waste” without any actual proof of fraud or mismanagement.
The third thing? Announce a full-scale purge of EPA policies related to climate change, clean air, and environmental justice.
Zeldin is a politician playing an administrator, and he’s treating climate policy as a partisan battlefield. His message is clear: if your organization received climate funding under Biden, you might as well start packing your bags, because your money is next on the chopping block.
The Fallout: What Happens When You Turn the Government Into a Political Weapon?
This isn’t just about one prosecutor’s resignation or one climate fund being frozen. This is the systematic dismantling of the rule of law in service of an administration that sees every policy of its predecessor as an enemy combatant.
Here’s what’s next:
- DOJ’s credibility will continue to crumble. When prosecutors see their colleagues being purged for refusing to carry out political hit jobs, they stop investigating real crimes. That’s how corruption thrives. That’s how accountability dies.
- The climate fund fiasco is headed to court. Legal experts are already warning that Zeldin’s attempt to seize back lawfully allocated funds is ripe for lawsuits—and if the courts still function properly, he’s going to lose.
- State governments will step up. With the EPA pulling back, expect California, New York, and other blue states to fill the void, enacting their own environmental policies while telling Zeldin and Trump to go pound sand.
- The public is getting a front-row seat to authoritarianism in action. For all the talk about draining the swamp, what Trump’s administration is doing isn’t reform—it’s revenge politics on steroids.
Final Thoughts: This is the New Normal—Unless We Make It Stop
The DOJ is no longer a justice department. The EPA is no longer about the environment. The U.S. government is becoming a machine designed to punish enemies and reward allies, law and ethics be damned.
And here’s the worst part: It’s working.
Prosecutors are quitting. Climate money is frozen. The fear is spreading. This is what happens when a government stops serving the public and starts serving the whims of a ruling party.
So what can be done? Expose it. Fight it. Document it. Mock it. Gonzo journalism was made for times like these. When the facts are so outrageous they read like satire, it’s up to us to tell the story, not just as news—but as the wild, unhinged, all-too-real dystopian novel that it is.
Stay angry. Stay vigilant. And for the love of all that’s holy, never stop paying attention.
