Martin led DOJ ‘weaponization’ group, named special prosecutor in mortgage-fraud inquiry targeting James
President Trump said Friday that Ed Martin will leave the Justice Department. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that Martin will depart to “fight Legal Battles for the upcoming Midterm Election, and the Presidential Election of 2028.” Martin most recently served as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.
Trump installed Martin at the department in several roles over his tenure. Martin served as acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and as the leader of a so-called weaponization working group formed to take action against government employees “deemed hostile to Trump or to conservative ideals,” according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal previously reported that Martin was informed in early December that his role would end at the start of the new year. The Journal described Martin’s tenure as “a turbulent year and a half.”
Martin maintained a direct line to Trump, who placed calls to him to discuss investigations, people familiar with the calls told the Journal. Martin wrote on X on Friday that he was “proud to serve.”
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi named Martin a special prosecutor last year to study mortgage fraud allegations against Trump’s perceived Democratic adversaries, including New York Attorney General Letitia James. James was charged in October, but a federal judge dismissed the criminal case.
According to the Journal, Martin sometimes courted publicity. He showed up outside James’s Brooklyn home wearing a trench coat resembling that worn by the fictional TV police lieutenant Columbo, according to the Journal.
In a separate episode, Martin sent a letter to a lawyer representing an FBI agent who was among the first on scene at the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, questioning the agent’s role in a defamation lawsuit brought against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Todd Blanche, then serving as deputy attorney general, told Martin to rescind the letter, the Journal reported.
Martin had supported Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him and had organized rallies alleging that voter fraud tainted the outcome, according to the Journal.
He had no prior experience as a prosecutor before Trump tapped him early in his second term to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. That office handled many of the prosecutions of people charged with crimes related to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Some Republican senators opposed Martin’s nomination over his advocacy for the pro-Trump mob that assaulted the Capitol, the Journal reported. Trump withdrew the nomination last year, installing Martin instead at the Justice Department’s headquarters.
Some people around Trump had questioned Martin’s effectiveness in leading the weaponization group, the Journal previously reported. The group examined matters including whether Biden-era officials had improperly investigated those involved in the attack on the Capitol, whether officials had “wrongly targeted Roman Catholics,” and whether officials had sought to silence parents who spoke out on topics including how race is addressed in schools.