With minimal opposition, the Senate has confirmed the vast majority of President Trump’s key nominations. One possible exception is his choice for chief federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital.
As the Senate nears a decision on whether to prolong or terminate Ed Martin Jr.’s brief but turbulent tenure as head of the nation’s largest U.S. Attorney’s office, the conservative activist and attorney with limited legal expertise is putting Republican party allegiance to the test. Martin Jr. has defended rioters who assaulted the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
There is strong resistance to Martin’s nomination from hundreds of veterans of the office he is temporarily managing. A number of Democrats are attempting to sway the vote on his confirmation. Republican senators on the judiciary committee have also requested further time to examine his work.
At Thursday’s Judiciary hearing, tensions were rising when senior Democrat Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin expressed his belief that committee chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was planning to declare “that we are not going to move forward on the Martin nomination.”
Grassley declined, stating that he would defer to the committee’s voting timetable before discussing Martin. However, he mentioned that he was still reviewing the committee’s hundreds of questions for Martin and mentioned that some of his employees “had more questions” and want an in-person meeting.
Not exactly a rousing endorsement of Martin, who has been a Trump loyalist but hasn’t spent much time in courtrooms.
Martin deposed or demoted seasoned attorneys who had prosecuted Trump supporters for storming the U.S. Capitol shortly after assuming office in January. He was an attorney for defendants in the Capitol riots and helped them earn money before he was appointed. He was a regular on Russian state television, where he repeated Trump’s rhetoric. Coloring books that glorified Trump’s comments were even released by him.
Even this week, Martin has chosen not to reply to many interview requests made by the Associated Press since he assumed office in January.
Martin expressed his certainty that Trump made the “right decision” by selecting him in a recent interview with NBC Washington. The efforts of his office in combating violent crime has been lauded by him. To top it all off, he has assured legislators that his personal views would have no bearing on official business.
Keeping the streets safe is only half the battle; the other half is representing America abroad. An incredible honor to assist Donald Trump in this capacity, as Martin expressed in a post on Substack.
Opponents of Martin’s nomination are pushing for an unusual hearing.
There will be a clear partisan divide in any vote on Martin’s nomination. First, though, Democrats are demanding an unusual hearing so they may question him extensively.
U.S. attorneys are often nominated through questionnaires rather than confirmation hearings by the Judiciary panel.
The candidacy of Martin would still have challenges in the Senate even if the committee were to give its approval. Republicans would have to devote many days of floor time to confirm Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, because he put a hold on the nomination. The confirmation of U.S. attorneys is often done by a rapid voice vote in groups.
Martin “has consistently undermined the independence and abused the power of the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C. since taking office,” according to Schiff’s statement last month.
Elon Musk, Charlie Kirk, and Donald Trump Jr. are among the prominent conservatives whose support Martin has boasted about. A number of Republican senators have voiced their support, including Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn.
Paul expressed his confidence in Martin’s ability to restore order in the nation’s capital and combat the left’s unchecked power in a post on X. Delighted to have him on our side as U.S. Attorney!
Proponents of his candidacy point to his history of fighting for conservative issues as evidence that he is the best candidate to head the department that, according to his detractors, failed to fairly handle the Jan. 6 defendants and should have prioritized the reduction of street violence. He pledged to “Make D.C. Safe Again” in his first weeks on the job by increasing the number of firearms cases heard in federal court, where punishments are harsher.
However, it seems that there is one Republican on the committee who has some doubts. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has voiced his disapproval of Martin’s remarks from January 6, announced on Thursday that he will meet with Martin next week.
The prosecution’s office is now headed by a former Capitol rioter’s advocate.
Martin was chosen by Trump the same week in January that he pardoned a large number of supporters who were involved in the assault on the U.S. Capitol four years ago. Prosecutors’ morale took a nosedive after spending four years constructing charges against more than 1,500 riot defendants in the Justice Department’s biggest investigation ever.
The “Stop the Steal” campaign that Trump ran was heavily supported by Martin. Just before the incident broke out, he gave a speech at a gathering in Washington. In addition, he was an attorney for three defendants on January 6; this case was one of his top ten from his career, according to his committee questionnaire.
After being assigned to oversee prosecutions on January 6, former federal prosecutor Michael Romano went back to his home office at the Justice Department before Martin’s arrival. Along with other senior prosecutors who were involved in the Capitol riot trials, Martin attempted to demote Romano to an entry-level job.
He seemed oblivious to the fact that I was not his employee, Romano, who has just begun working for a private legal company, claimed. “I felt like my eyes were going to roll at that moment.”
In support of the defendants charged on January 6, Martin was a board member of the non-profit Patriot Freedom Project, which reportedly raised more than $2.5 million. The defendant in the Capitol incident last year, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who had a photo of himself with a Hitler mustache and publicly advocated antisemitic and white supremacist views, was given an award by him. In his conversation with Hale-Cusanelli, he described the buddy as “an extraordinary guy.”
The racist remarks made by Hale-Cusanelli are “abhorrent and deplorable,” Martin said the committee. He said that he was unaware of them until he handed off the trophy at a ceremony held at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.
However, in his interview with Hale-Cusanelli prior to the awards ceremony, Martin made passing references to the scandal. Prosecutors, according to Martin, leaked images of Hale-Cusanelli with the Hitler mustache in an effort to skew the jury.
“Not your finest hour, but not against the law,” Martin said.
Controversies in Martin’s political life are nothing new.
Those who hold Martin to a higher standard contend that he exploited his position and his account on Musk’s X platform to threaten individuals who may be the subject of investigations.
Martin wrote to no less than three medical publications, each time inquiring about “competing viewpoints.” “Allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public” was the accusation leveled against Wikipedia in an additional letter he addressed on official stationery.
Throughout his previous stints in public service, Martin frequently found himself embroiled in political disputes and lawsuits. He was chief of staff for then-Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt about twenty years ago when a former staff attorney sued him, claiming he was sacked for reporting about the illegal destruction of e-mails by the administration.
Prior to his appointment as president of the Eagle Forum, founded by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly in April 2013, Martin served as chairman of the Missouri Republican Party. He wrote a book about Trump alongside Schlafly, who passed away in 2016.
Martin claims to be an attorney for the president. His detractors have said he isn’t competent or suitable for the position.
Upon completion of basic training, Ed Martin have less experience than a misdemeanor assistant. “That’s not an exaggeration,” stated Kevin Flynn, a former prosecutor for about twelve U.S. attorneys in Washington who resigned in 2023. “In addition, he isn’t exactly picking up skills as he goes along.”
