When President Donald Trump elected Ed Martin, Missouri’s lawyer and political operation, to be the main American prosecutor of Washington, DC, the decision was a surprise for current and previous federal prosecutors, as well as external legal experts. Martin had no prosecuting experience. He was quite known as conservative activist, the former right on the right to the influential antipheminist icon Phyllis Schlafly and a loyal substitute for Trump.
Since he took over the office in January, Martin launched controversial investigations, he hastened to defend the efficiency department of Elon Musk’s government and promised to change the way his office processes in the Columbia district.
Their actions have one leg with the fierce setback of democratic legislators, surveillance groups and legal experts. There are at least four disciplinary complaints filed against him with the Bars of DC and Missouri. One of DC’s complaints has dismissed bone; The other three seem to be pending. If Martin has responded to complaints, his statements have not been made public.
Martin did not respond to repeated requests for comments.
These are some of Martin’s most controversial movements so far.
January 6 compensation
In Trump’s direction, Martin has presented the dismissal of pending cases that were part of the investigation of the Department of Justice on the riots of January 6, 2021 in the Capitol.
But Martin was stumbled by what should have been a legal formality: in one of the cases he dismissed, he was still a registration lawyer for the accused, a possible conflict of interest. The incident caused bar complaints against Martin in DC and Missouri. (The DC bar panel dismissed the complaint, saying that Martin had been acting at the request of the president. Missouri’s complaint seems to be pending).
Martin shot more than a federal prosecutors who worked in the cases of January 6. He degraded seven higher lawyers in his office, including the two prosecutors who led the January 6 team, low -level roles in the Superior Court of DC, which manages local prosecutions. (Most of the affected lawyers have not commented publicly, but those who have done so are critical of Martin’s mandate).
Martin has opened an investigation into alleged leaks related to the cases of January 6, saying that the information was used “by the media and supporters as wrong information.” Hi, he also ordered an investigation into collection decisions taken as part of the cases of January 6. In 2024, the United States Supreme Court in excess the use of the DOJ of a statute of obsstruction in those prosecutions. In an email from the entire office, Obey Propublica, Martin cited an unidentified contact that compared the use of the obstruction statute by the Department of Justice with the decision of President Franklin Roosevelt to imprison more than 100,000 US Japanese in the internment camps in the world duration.
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Martin has published several letters open to Musk on the Social Network Platform owned by Almizcle X.
In the first letter, dated February 3, Martin asked Musk to “use my staff” to protect people and Doge’s work. He promised to take “each and every one of the legal actions against anyone” that prevented Doge’s work.
“We will not act as the previous administration,” Martin added, “who looked the other way as the anti -Fa and Blm rufflers, as well as the thugs with weapons destroyed our capital city.”
In his second letter, dated February 7, Martin expanded in his promise to the legal powers of his office in support of Musk and Doge’s work. “Please allow me to reiterate again: if it is discovered that people have violated the law or simply innitically act, we will investigate them and chase them until the end of the earth to hold them responsible,” Martin wrote.
They urged their employees to respond to Musk’s demand that all federal employees list five things they achieved that week, adding: “Doge and Elon are doing a great job!
And when Dogs employees tried to confiscate the control of the US Peace Institute. UU., A private non -profit organization that receives government funds, Martin and his office attended so that Doge could take and finish the non -profit organization.
“We will defend you”
The United States Prosecutor’s Office for DC is unique, since it processes federal and local crimes. In his tweets and public statements, Martin has promised to “make DC safe”, despite the fact that violent crime has decreased widely in the district in recent years.
Although its public security agenda is light in the details so far, it has pledged to be an unconditional defender of the DC Police. In another open letter published in X, Martin wrote that the “Radical” Movement of the Police “by Black Lives Matter is” and that it was “time to protect and support our law agents.”
“At every step, we will defend you,” he said.
However, current and previous federal prosecutors in DC say that Martin’s actions have so far undermined the morale in the office, while their proposal reforms could make it more difficult, not easier, than prosecutors do their job.
In February, Martin eliminated the boss and the attached boss of the Federal Section of Main Crimes, which in excess of cases involving drugs, possession of firearms, child exploitation, trafficking in people and immigration violations. The two lawyers, who had respected decades of experience between and were widely, were degraded to low level roles; The most senior of the two, Melissa Jackson, resigned shortly after. (Jackson declined to comment; his deputy did not respond to comments requests).
Martin also said he was “rewriting” the office of the Office for the so -called Lewis list, a repository of disciplinary records of police officer. Prosecutors consult the Lewis database when they decide whether to place a police officer on the stack of witnesses. They also use the Lewis list to identify the officers on whom they need to reveal information to the defense lawyers who have the credibility of a witness or the possible bias to fulfill their constitutional obligations.
Martin framed his decision to reform Lewis’s list as part of a broader change to be more pro -police. “USAO will no longer allow judges or others to damage their careers free of charge due to the huge impact of the inaccurate characterization,” hey.
Michael Romano, a former federal prosecutor in the DC office, said that any effort to weave or eliminate the Lewis list will only make prosecutors argue and win cases, they will deprive them of information that Leay must close in court. “Destripation of the Lewis list,” Romano to Propublic, “makes it less likely that prosecutors obtain convictions in the trial, make more likely that the convictions are invested in the appeal and puts the licenses of the prosecutors at risk.”
Investigating the Democrats
Martin has started multiple research on Trump’s critics and opponents.
Martin asked the representative Eugene Vindman, a D-VA Democrat, information about a business that Vindman and his brother, Alexander, began to support Ukraine in his war against Russia, the Washington Post reported. Vindman and his twin brother, Alex, both whistles about Trump’s attempt to retain military aid to Ukraine while pressing the country’s leader to investigate President Joe Biden’s family. Eugene Vindman said Martin’s letter was part of Trump’s “compensation campaign” and who wrote the letter and “encouraged this strange attempt of intimidation is a liar.”
The members of the Biden family and the former administration officials received letters from the Martin office related to the former president’s decision to grant indults to people close to him, the New York Times reported. Trump has pressed an unproven theory that Biden actions remain valid because he was mentally competent.
Hello also letters to Sen. Chuck Schumer from New York and representative Robert García de California, both Democrats, asking them to answer questions about incendiary public comments they had done. The consultations seemed to have struggled and did not give rise to any charge.
Aimed at medical magazines
On April 14, Martin sent a list of questions to the editor of Chest magazine, a medical magazine published by the American College of Chest Physicans. The Letter Accused the Journal and Others Like it of “Being Partisans in Various Scientific Debates” and Asked to Series of Contentious Questions, Such As “How do You Clearly Articate When You have Celerin Ophe -witters Witters, warned byteceders, funtaters, ByTorceders, by Finterceds, by Finterced bytercedseed byTenteds, Others?
Two other editors from the medical magazine received similar letters, the New York Times reported. The letters have raised serious groups about stopping freedom of expression and intimidation of the government of scientific publications.
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