Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin

On January 21, the day after cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump pardoned 1,500 January 6 insurrectionists, the Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Edward R. Martin, Jr. signed a motion to dismiss the case of Joseph Padilla. Padilla had been convicted of assaulting two police officers on January 6, though his case was ongoing. Martin did not have to work very hard to identify Padilla's defense attorney because that individual was none other than Edward R. Martin, Jr. himself. Martin was, in fact, both the prosecutor and the defense attorney in the case, a clear violation of the Department of Justice's conflict of interest rules. This is Martin in a nutshell. A former defense attorney for January 6 insurrectionists who is now, temporarily at least, in charge of the U.S. Attorney's office that was primarily responsible for prosecuting the January 6 cases.

In the blog posts that I've written about our current political environment, one theme has repeatedly surfaced. That is the total disregard for the rule of law shown by Trump and his appointees, especially Shadow President Elon Musk. For years, Trump sought to delegitimize the Department of Justice by accusing it of waging political witch hunts against him. Trump clearly, if inaccurately, viewed the DOJ as the legal arm of the President and repeatedly claimed that he was being pursued at the behest of former President Joe Biden. Returning to the White House for the second time, Trump quickly moved to take revenge upon those who had participated in the legal actions against him. He also made clear that, given his view that the DOJ should do the bidding of the President, he expected the department to follow his MAGA agenda. There has probably been no more willing participant in this endeavor than Ed Martin.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has a unique role in the Department of Justice. Like other U.S. Attorney offices, it serves as the district's federal prosecutor, pursuing everything from tax evasion to terrorism. But, unlike other USAOs, the D.C. office is responsible for prosecuting most local crime as well. As a result, Martin has influence over both local and national issues. In his first weeks on the job, he has shown a propensity for exercising his MAGA credentials in both.

Upon taking office, Martin moved quickly to fire a large number of prosecutors who had been involved in pursuing January 6 cases. He also reassigned others. He then pledged not to hire anyone affiliated with a law school that practiced diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, writing to the Dean of the Georgetown University Law School to demand that the school end all DEI efforts. Martin posted, but appears to have deleted, a tweet on the X social media network in which he described the attorneys in his office as "President Trumps’ [sic] lawyers" and went on to write that, "we are vigilant in standing against entities like the AP that refuse to put America first". This was a shocking threat to use the DOJ to punish a media outlet for not adhering to state-sponsored discourse. Martin also tweeted a letter to Musk promising to "utilize me and my staff to assist in protecting the DOGE work and the DOGE workers". This appeared to be an attempt to discourage legal protests that had been occurring outside buildings in which U.S. DOGE Service (USDS) staff were working. In a subsequent tweet, Martin made claims that certain individuals and groups had "committed acts that appear to violate the law." Both of these statements violate DOJ procedures which prohibit prosecutors from alleging violations before charges are filed.

Separately, Martin has sent letters to Representative Robert Garcia and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threatening legal action in response to remarks they have made. In Garcia's case, referencing Musk, Garcia had said, "What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight." Martin considered this a threat of violence and also criticized Garcia for calling Musk a "dick". Martin wrote to Schumer about remarks Schumer made back in 2020. Schumer had warned Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh that they have "released the whirlwind and you will pay the price." Martin also considered this a threat and even sought a grand jury investigation of Schumer, but was rebuffed by his superiors in the DOJ. It is unclear whether Martin truly doesn't understand the difference between legal political speech and unlawful threats or if he is just using his office to attempt to intimidate political enemies.

On the local level, Martin's highest-profile measure has been what he dubbed the "Make D.C. Safe Again Initiative," which is the prioritization of the prosecution of gun crimes. He directed his staff to prosecute every firearms violation that comes across their desks and to attempt to detain anyone charged with such crimes rather than allowing them to be released pending trial. Frankly, many D.C. residents will probably welcome this approach. For far too long, the federal government has appeared to cultivate the increase in guns in the District. It will be nice to see federal officials taking a harder stance. On the other hand, previous U.S. Attorneys for D.C. have complained that the police bring them weak cases which cannot be successfully prosecuted. If this continues to be true, Martin may be causing a lot of wasted time, money, and other resources by removing prosecutorial discretion. Moreover, when something very similar to this was attempted during Trump's first term, the USAO quickly found itself overwhelmed and without enough prosecutors. The office ultimately had to scale down its ambitions. Martin has made this problem worse by firing a number of the most experienced prosecutors in the office (prompting him to send out a recruitment notice on X). It will be interesting to see how this plays out in practice.

Martin had a far more sinister role in another type of crime, however. On February 19, D.C. Metropolitan Police were called to an apartment building where they found Republican Representative Cory Mills and a 27-year-old woman who is not his wife. A police report describing the incident said that Mills had "grabbed" the woman and "shoved her, and pushed her out of the door." The report further described the woman as having "bruises on her arm which appeared fresh". Finally, the woman allowed the police to listen to a phone call in which Mills instructed her to lie about the cause of her bruises. Mills even admitted that the confrontation had escalated from verbal to physical. However, when police presented the case to Martin, he declined to sign off on an arrest warrant. The police were also at fault in this case; they should have taken Mills into custody at the scene. But, there is a strong suggestion that Martin's lack of interest in prosecuting is due to partisan politics. This is a guy who has pursued politicians for using metaphors but refuses to do anything about a woman being bruised in an assault. Martin is certainly giving the impression that Republicans will be able to get away with, if not murder, at least assault as long as he has anything to say about it.

As noted, Martin has been appointed the interim U.S. Attorney and, therefore, will be limited to a 120-day term. He has been nominated by Trump to fill the position permanently, but that will require Senate confirmation. Hopefully, the Senate will reject Martin due to his partisanship, but based on recent experience, there may not be much hope of this.