Opinion
Civil Action 22-2489 (UNA)
10-03-2022
EDSON GELIN, Petitioner, v. U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL MERRICK GARLAND, et al., Respondents.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
JIA M. COBB, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE.
This matter is before the Court on Edson Gelin's application to proceed in forma pauperis (ECF No. 2) and his pro se “Emergency Writ of Mandamus” (ECF No. 1). Generally, Petitioner alleges that the Assistant United States Attorney who prosecuted his criminal case and members of a Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force who investigated Petitioner's activities “engaged in countless criminal acts in the course of their investigation, arrest, and prosecution” of Petitioner. Pet. ¶ 1. His efforts to have officials of the United States Department of Justice investigate the matter have been unsuccessful, see generally id. ¶¶ 1-8. Petitioner asks this Court “to compel [Respondents] to perform [their] nondiscretionary duties by fully investigating his criminal and civil rights complaints which contain verifiable claims of government corruption[.]” Id. at 9 (page number designated by CM/ECF).
A writ of mandamus “compel[s] an officer or employee of the United States or any agency thereof to perform a duty owed to the plaintiff.” 28 U.S.C. § 1361. “[M]andamus is ‘drastic'; it is available only in ‘extraordinary situations.'” In re Cheney, 406 F.3d 723, 729 (D.C. Cir. 2005) (citations omitted). Only if “(1) the plaintiff has a clear right to relief; (2) the defendant has a clear duty to act; and (3) there is no other adequate remedy available to the plaintiff,” Thomas v. Holder, 750 F.3d 899, 903 (D.C. Cir. 2014), is mandamus relief granted. Petitioner does not establish a clear right to relief or Respondents' clear duty to act where, as here, the decision to investigate an Assistant United States Attorney and members of a Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force is discretionary. See Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S. 821, 831 (1985) (noting that “an agency's decision not to prosecute or enforce, whether through civil or criminal process, is a decision generally committed to an agency's absolute discretion”).
The Court will grant Petitioner leave to proceed in forma pauperis, deny the request for a writ of mandamus, and dismiss this civil action. An Order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.