Washington's interim US lawyer, Ed Martin, was flooded with his signature trench coat towards the office elevator in February.
“Oh, what's going on here?” asked Martin with laughter, according to people with knowledge of the exchange.
The lawyer was too unsatisfied to speak. They were just fired – part of a purge overseen by about 20 prosecutors Martin during the Biden administration to indict the mob who stormed Capitol on January 6, 2021.
President Trump has run a US lawyers' office forever as he nominated Martin, a conservative Republican political operative in Missouri, and emerged as one of the most passionate advocates of the January 6th rioters. Even as he asks that the Jan. 6 investigation be dismantled and outlawed, Martin is using his authority to help Trump implement a retaliation campaign to investigate Democrats, academic institutions and Elon Musk critics.
After an internal debate at West Wing on Thursday, Trump led the nominations and told White House reporters, “We have some great people.”
Martin's fate was sealed Tuesday when Sen. Tom Tillis, a leading Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said he would not support the nomination for Martin's work on behalf of the mob. It took a fatal blow to his path to confirmation, with the committee stuck between 11 and 11, with all 10 Democrats on the panel opposed to Martin. Republican leaders say they will not take procedural steps to force votes on the floor.
Martin's fall could be a limit to what Rubber Senate Republicans are trying to accept Trump's candidates. Trump's approval rate in key demographics has flagged it in the past month, blew the party's prospects for the midterm 2026, and loosen the grip of a president who probably won't put that ticket on top again.
But Martin is a bipartisan activist with no experience as a prosecutor known for his anti-Semitic spouse and his party's far-right boundaries – it could have been more than he was worthy of trouble. According to a Republican aide, Martin can relatively easily trade with a more attractive candidate who has a set of priorities, if not extreme, priorities, talking about the terms of anonymity to discuss strategy.
Nevertheless, the declaration from Tillis only spurred a fierce backlash among influencer elite Trump, with some of the West Wing intended to fight for Martin, according to officials who spoke about conditions of anonymity to discuss the internal stage.
In his remarks, Trump suggested finding a place somewhere else in his administration in a post that probably doesn't require confirmation from the Senate. Over the past few days, people near the president have considered a variety of possibilities, including another position in the Department of Justice, according to those familiar with the situation.
Martin was still fighting for his side to continue his work on Thursday.
He continued it in verse sal 23:4.
“Yeah, I walk through the valley of the shadows of death, but I am not afraid of evil.
Whatever happens next, it needs to happen quickly. If anyone is not confirmed by May 20, when Martin's interim appointment expires, his successor will be named by a judge sitting in U.S. District Court in Washington. They are one of Trump's most proud judicial enemies, James E. Boasberg, the Supreme Court Justice, overseeing several cases against the Trump administration.
Tillis suggests a more likely alternative. The administration was able to choose a US representative lawyer to buy time.
Representatives from Martin, the Justice Department and Trump declined to comment.
Trump told people that Martin was one of his favourites, according to people with knowledge of the issue. Speaking regularly with Martin, Trump has reassured him of his support over the past few weeks.
But if the Capitol riots were the biggest looming for Mr. Tillis, it was a revelation about Martin's relationship with the famous defendant on January 6th, which changed many fence photographers against him.
In recent years, Martin has hosted a man named Timothy Hale Casanelli, dressed up like Adolf Hitler, on his podcast, sketching the cartoon “drawn Jews as pigs,” and once declared that he “kills all Jews and eats them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Several of the Senate president's allies, including South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, urged him to move on. According to two people who know the situation, Trump has begun reaching out to potential successors.
On Wednesday, Trump suggested he didn't know that Martin's nomination was on the rock, but that Martin's fate rested with the Senate, not the White House.
“I didn't know that, but if someone voted against him, I feel very bad,” he told White House reporters. “But if they feel that way, it really depends on the senator.”
A few days ago, the White House appears to be in it all, enlisting former Senator Norm Coleman. Norm Coleman helped Martin push Pete Hegses to the finish line in his confirmation fight to become Secretary of Defense to help him negotiate legislative shallows.
Martin highlighted the work he did in defeating violent crimes in his city. It falls under his Biden-appointed predecessor and began posting news and meetings of his arrests with community leaders on his personal and official X page.
But Martin didn't make it easier for himself. In a recent submission to the Senate Judiciary Committee, he denied his close ties with Hale Casanelli and claims he is unaware of his views.
He is a longtime board member of the Patriot Freedom Project, a January 6 legal fundraiser for the defendant, run by Hale Casanelli's aunt on January 6, and the two men appeared together at Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey in September.
During the event, Martin called Hale Casanelli a “extraordinary person, extraordinary leader.”
In March, they both spoke from the same podium at an event for another group where Martin had long been affiliated with the Phyllis Schlafrey Eagles in Naples, Florida.
“We've seen a huge recovery of truth,” Hale Casanelli said. “The defendant on January 6th is not a criminal.
Martin used his speech to compare the January 6th prosecution during World War II with the internment of Japanese-Americans.
Martin shared unforced errors, alienated some members of staff with religiously altered office emails, pushed the boundaries of normal prosecutorial actions, and even brought basic bureaucratic procedures.
After filing in February, the clerk's office in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia notified Martin that he had not submitted any official recognition and therefore “it is not good to file this court.” The problem was resolved later.
That same month he sent a threat to one of Trump's longtime antagonists, Virginia Democrat Eugene Vindman, who demanded information about his personal finances and robbed him of the usual subpoena procedure by voluntarily seeking sensitive information. It also includes a prominent typo, instructing Vindman to respond to inquiries by “Day, Mon, Date, 2025” indicating that Martin had forgotten to fill in the gaps.
In April, Martin issued a news release an allegation against a Washington man in connection with vandalism of several Tesla vehicles. He trumpeted the crime as “domestic terrorism,” but his own official statement admitted that the man was charged with a low-level misdemeanor offence.
In March, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the group governing the District of Columbia legal bar to investigate Martin, saying they abused prosecutors by threatening their political opponents. In a letter to the disciplinary advisor to DC Barr, the senator also accused Martin of violating professional standards by refusing to reject himself from cases involving Capitol rioters he personally represented.
The complaint follows a revelation that Martin quietly presented evidence against Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and presented evidence to the Federal Ju Court in 2020 about his comments on justice.
Schumer had apologised for the statement, saying that rhetoric was overheating. According to people familiar with the situation, officers at the Department of Justice headquarters quickly blocked the request from the large ju court.
Previous letters that Martin sent to Schumer notified him of career Justice Department officials who were blinded to him. He was not concerned about clearing missives with lawyers in the Public Integrity Section or reviewing the case, as required by departmental policy.
However, it is not clear that the top political appointees of the department are unhappy with Martin's maximalist approach. Martin worked with one senior leader, Emil Bove III, to pressure the office's criminal director, Dennis Chong to freeze the assets of government contractors who received Green Energy grants from the Biden administration.
Cheung, a 24-year veteran of the department, stopped rather than complying. In her February resignation letter, she cited inadequate evidence of misconduct and accused Bove of trying to “bypass” the usual chain of command by intervening directly in the matter.
Martin has been a common cause with a group of like-minded lawyers in the Department of Justice's headquarters in the antitrust division. According to those familiar with the argument, he even tried to create an informal pipeline.
Nevertheless, morale within the US law firm has plummeted since his arrival, according to current and former staff.
Early in his tenure, Mr. Martin, whose court character is in contrast to his memos and Missive belligerents, was often trapped in his office and not mixed with career staff.
As he ventured, the prosecutor found his actions confused.
Sometimes he tried to quietly approach junior prosecutors to recruit them in cases that he later found to be legal or politically difficult.
His pitch, according to someone familiar with interacting with Martin's staff members, said, “Are you interested in helping out with something great?”
To protect his subordinates, some mid-level managers in the office instructed employees to notify their superiors immediately if Martin took such an approach, the person added.
