A federal prosecutor has reportedly left a case involving members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas citing "security concerns."
The Dallas Morning News reports that Houston-based assistant U.S. attorney Jay Hileman told defense lawyer Richard O. Ely II that he was withdrawing in an email.
Ely is representing one of the defendants in the case, which involves racketeering charges.
Houston defense attorney Katherine Scardino also received the email from Hileman, according to Talking Points Memo.
"He sent the email to every lawyer representing a defendant in the Aryan Brotherhood federal case, and he said -- very short email -- that he was withdrawing for security reasons," Scardino told TPM.
Angela Dodge, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Houston, declined to confirm to The Huffington Post whether or why Hileman left the case.
"The case currently pending in the Southern District of Texas has been and will continue to be worked by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas in partnership with the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division," Dodge said in an email.
The news comes days after Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife were shot and killed in their home.
The Associated Press reports that authorities are investigating whether white supremacists could be behind a recent spate of deadly violence directed at prosecutors and a Colorado corrections official.
Texas law enforcement agencies have been put on high alert, the AP reports.
The killings also come months after 34 members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas were indicted, according to Democracy Now.
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