'Smells bad': Ex-prosecutor flags key detail as Musk sends DOJ list of probe targets
FILE PHOTO: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks during a rally on the inauguration day of U.S. President Donald Trump's second Presidential term, inside Capital One, in Washington, U.S. January 20, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

A letter written by a top federal prosecutor to Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency promising to investigate in blistering terms individuals who he’s referred for prosecution doesn't pass the smell test for CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams.

The analysis came Friday after a letter written by Edward Martin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, emerged and came under a heavy microscope by Williams, a former federal prosecutor himself.

“The problem here is not Elon Musk,” Williams said. “The problem is the prosecutor.”

In the letter, Martin told Musk he would “begin an inquiry” into his referral of “individuals and networks who appear to be stealing government property and/or threatening government employees.”

Martin added in the letter that “if people are discovered to have broken the law or even acted simply unethically, we will investigate them and we will chase them to the end of the Earth to hold them accountable. We will not rest or cease in this.”

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That language didn’t sit right with Williams, who called the prosecutor out on CNN’s “The Situation Room” for seeming “to suggest that he has made a decision as to the guilt or innocence already of these people.”

“By all means, if these DOGE folks have found what they think is evidence of wrongdoing, they're allowed to tell DOJ about it,” Williams said Friday. “It’s just up to DOJ, and quite frankly the courts to make responsible, reasonable decisions as to who ought to and ought not to be prosecuted.”

Williams added: “And that's what smells bad here.”

The letter from President Donald Trump's new prosecutor was dated Friday and also addressed to Boring Company CEO Steve Davis. It concluded: “No one should abuse American taxpayer dollars nor American taxpayer workers. No one is above the law.”

Musk recently updated his X bio to say he is “White House tech support.”

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