The head of the Trump administration’s  Weaponization Working Group has rescinded a letter he sent to a retired FBI agent who responded to the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting. The letter had suggested the agent was under investigation for his role in the related defamation lawsuit against the host of “Infowars,” Alex Jones. 

Earlier this month, the associate deputy attorney general and pardon attorney, Ed Martin, sent a letter to a lawyer for the former FBI agent, William Aldenberg, one of the first responders to the 2012 Sandy Hook school mass shooting, requesting information regarding Mr. Aldenberg’s role “in certain litigation that may benefit him personally.” 

“As you may know, 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,” Mr. Martin wrote. 

Mr. Martin requested that their correspondence remain confidential. “I do not wish to litigate this in the media,” Mr. Martin wrote. 

However, on Tuesday Mr. Jones posted a picture of the letter on his X account, announcing Mr. Martin’s task force was investigating the FBI for “directing illegal law-fare” against him. 

Parents of some of the children murdered at Sandy Hook sued Mr. Jones in 2018, more than five years after the massacre, accusing him of subjecting them to years of abuse and trolling by claiming they made up the incident. Eventually, Mr. Jones was ordered to pay about $1.3 billion to the families. He has been fighting with the families ever since and has not paid them.

Earlier this month, Mr. Jones posted on X a photo of him and Mr. Martin, adding that “The Deep State is in DEEP S—!!!”

On Wednesday, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, ordered Mr. Martin to withdraw the letter following the backlash from Mr. Jones’s post, according to ABC News.

In a new letter to Mr. Aldenberg’s attorney, Christopher Mattei, Mr. Martin said the former agent was not under investigation and “because of this, I hereby withdraw my request for information from you or your former client,” according to CNN.

In 2022, Mr. Aldenberg was a plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit filed by the families of victims that accused Mr. Jones, a conspiracy theorist, of “a years-long campaign of abusive and outrageous false statements” — including calling the attack, which killed 20 first graders and six educators, “completely fake with actors.”

During the trial, Mr. Aldenberg cried when he described seeing the bodies of the victims inside the school as he and other first responders arrived.

A Connecticut jury ordered Mr. Jones to pay $965 million in damages, $90 million of which was awarded to Mr. Aldenberg.

In his initial September 15 letter, Mr. Martin suggested that Mr. Aldenberg’s involvement in that litigation “may impact our citizens and our legal system.”

Mr. Martin included a list of questions for Mr. Mattei, including whether Mr. Aldenberg made clear his testimony in the 2022 trial was “in his personal capacity,” and asked whether the former agent disclosed “any financial benefit that might accrue to him as he led litigation and recruited other plaintiffs?”

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Mattei said he was pleased the “so-called inquiry has now been withdrawn, if it ever existed at all.”

“Let this be a reminder: This is not a moment to cower in silence, but to stand up to bullying, lawless misconduct. This isn’t over,” Mr. Mattei said.