President Donald Trump campaigned on ending the “weaponization” of the Justice Department. The early going suggests that the Trump White House may instead use federal prosecutors to reward friends with dismissed prosecutions while subjecting the president’s political enemies to heightened scrutiny. One such prosecutor — Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. — already stands out.
Martin last week sent a letter to the dean of Georgetown University Law Center threatening not to hire the law school’s grads as long as professors there to “promote and teach DEI,” said CNN. The dean rebuffed Martin’s threat: The prosecutor’s letter is a “constitutional violation” that attacks the “University’s mission as a Jesuit and Catholic institution,” William Treanor said in his response. The exchange highlighted how Martin has used his newfound prosecutorial powers to “aggressively push Trump’s retribution agenda,” said CNN.
A firebrand eyeing Democrats
Martin is a “firebrand” conservative radio host who was an “active figure in Missouri politics for decades” before ascending to his current post, said The Washington Examiner. During Trump’s time out of office, Martin was an “advocate for Jan. 6 Capitol rioters,” said Bloomberg. After becoming the D.C. prosecutor, he oversaw the dismissal of “hundreds of criminal cases” against those same insurrection participants,” while also demoting “multiple senior supervisors” who participated in the prosecutions during the Biden Administration. Such moves have “provoked the anger of Democrats,” said the Examiner.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Apart from Jan. 6, Martin “has made his priorities unmistakable,” said Vox. His office dismissed a campaign finance case against former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) while refusing to bring domestic violence charges against Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.). He has also signaled a desire to go after “Democratic politicians, the media, progressive groups” and other Trump rivals. In one incident, he responded to the controversy over the Associated Press’ refusal to use the label “Gulf of America” by saying on X that as “President Trumps’ lawyers” [sic] his office would be “vigilant in standing against entities like the AP that refuse to put America first.” A community note appended to the post noted that the Justice Department “is not the personal law firm of the president.”
Trump clearly likes what he sees. The president in February nominated Martin to take the federal prosecutor job on a permanent basis, said NBC News. The announcement came three days after Martin posted on X that he would investigate Jack Smith, the Biden-era special counsel who prosecuted Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election. “We’ll be in touch soon,” Martin said in the post.
A ‘real challenge’ for confirmation
Democrats are also taking notice of Martin. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have filed a formal complaint accusing the prosecutor of “professional misconduct,” said The Hill. Martin’s behavior “undermines the integrity of our justice system and erodes public confidence in it,” said the 10 Democrats who serve on the committee. It is also not clear whether Senate Republicans will back confirming Martin to keep the job permanently. That will be a “real challenge,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
