A senior Department of Justice official has retracted a letter that suggested a retired FBI agent who testified against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones could face a criminal investigation.
The official, Ed Martin, who directs the DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, withdrew his inquiry on Wednesday after an order from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, according to a source familiar with the matter. The reversal followed significant backlash after Jones publicized Martin’s initial letter on social media.
In a new letter to Christopher Mattei, the attorney for retired FBI agent William Aldenberg, Martin stated, “I write to inform you that there is no investigation of you or your client. Because of this, I hereby withdraw my request for information.”
This development came a day after Jones posted a copy of Martin’s original letter, which had requested information about Aldenberg’s role in the successful defamation lawsuit against Jones. In that letter, Martin wrote, “There are criminal laws protecting the citizens from actions by government employees who may be acting for personal benefit. I encourage you to review those.”
Martin sent the initial inquiry just three days after Jones posted a photo of the two men together on September 12.
In a statement Tuesday, Mattei condemned the original letter as part of Jones’s ongoing harassment of Aldenberg and the Sandy Hook families. “In his last gasps, Jones is once again harassing them, only now with the corrupt complicity of at least one DOJ official,” Mattei said. “It’s as disgusting as it is pathetic, and we will not stand for it.”
Aldenberg was among the first law enforcement officers to respond to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. During the defamation trial, he gave emotional testimony about entering the classrooms where 20 children were killed and described the years of threats he endured from people who believed Jones’s false claims that the massacre was a hoax.
A jury ordered Jones to pay Aldenberg $90 million as part of a total $1.4 billion judgment for the harassment and threats he and the victims’ families suffered.
During a previous role as Interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Martin reportedly sent similar letters suggesting investigations into high-profile political opponents of the president. A Justice Department spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether Attorney General Pam Bondi was aware of Martin’s inquiry or had ordered its retraction.
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