Trump's US attorney in DC lacks experience but loves revenge. Perfect, right? | Opinion
Trump's pick for U.S. attorney for D.C. has never been a prosecutor. He's never tried a case to a final verdict. But he has published a series of coloring books about the president's first term.
In the "before times," the appointment by a new president of 94 people to serve as U.S. attorneys – top federal prosecutors in districts across the country – didn't generate much news or outrage.
In the now times, with President Donald Trump's obsession with weaponizing every aspect of the executive branch to satisfy his rapacious grasp for retribution, Ed Martin feels no need to avoid controversy. Instead, he embraces it.
Martin touts in his biography as U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., that Trump appointed him on an interim basis "just minutes" after his inauguration on Jan. 20. Martin got right to work, perverting his new post from prosecutor to political enforcer.
That's not the job. Federal prosecutors are not supposed to chase attention. And they're certainly not supposed to act as goonish groupies trying to intimidate critics of any politician. But, again, that's the before-times way of thinking about federal prosecutors. In the time of Trump, ethical behavior and actual experience count for nothing. Fealty to Trump is all.
Trump US attorney pick has never been a prosecutor. But he has published coloring books.
Maybe Martin just doesn't know any better? He's never worked as a prosecutor before. In a questionnaire filed with the U.S. Senate, which must approve his permanent appointment as U.S. attorney, Martin said he had never tried a case to a final verdict or judgment as lead counsel.
But Martin has published a short series of coloring books "for all ages," based enthusiastically on Trump's first term as president. It's a smart way to appeal to a president known to avoid reading.
As Washington's top prosecutor, Martin flipped the script on Jan. 6, 2021, investigating the Department of Justice employees who held accountable the Trump supporters who sacked the Capitol. Martin's actual experience in lawyering includes representing people accused of crimes that day.
Martin has also made not-so-veiled threats to investigate anyone who publicly examines and criticizes the work of Elon Musk, Trump's co-president, who has worked to dismember the federal government through the now ridiculously named Department of Government Efficiency.
And he picked a fight with Georgetown University's Law School, earning a stinging rebuke from the dean there.
Democrats warned Republicans about Ed Martin
The Senate usually votes to approve or reject nominees for U.S. attorney without a public hearing. The nominees are typically well-known and accomplished lawyers familiar with the district they are asked to lead, often recommended by one or both senators from that state.
There's nothing typical about Martin, who has mostly held political positions in Missouri.
U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, placed a "hold" on Martin's nomination last week, citing his "troubling conduct" since taking over on an interim basis.
“No one embodies Donald Trump’s personal weaponization of the Justice Department more than Ed Martin," Schiff wrote while announcing his hold. "He is unfit to serve as a lawyer, let alone one with the resources – and cover from the Senate – to further twist the power of the law and law enforcement to go after Americans who stand up for the rule of law and for our democracy."
Schiff and nine other Democrats on the Judiciary Committee last week called on the Republicans who control the Senate to hold a hearing on Martin's appointment. They cited in part his efforts to "chill" the speech of Trump administration critics in the government and media, his support for Jan. 6 rioters and his previous advocacy for the 2020 effort to overturn the presidential election.
Republicans in the Senate, of course, have just ignored that. So the Democrats held a joint hearing with U.S. House colleagues Monday to talk about how they see the Trump administration upending the rule of law at the Department of Justice.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, in that hearing, called Martin an "unapologetically extremist sycophant" and accused him of elevating "devotion to Trump over any semblance of fidelity to the Constitution."
A spokesperson for Martin declined to comment or make him available for an interview for this column.
Former DC prosecutors believe Martin is unfit for the job
Stacey Young, a former career litigator at the Department of Justice who resigned in January from the Civil Rights Division, testified in Monday's hearing that the Trump administration "unleashed an all-out assault" on the people who work to keep America safe every day.
She said Martin has "carried himself as a general in the president's war on his enemies, instead as a backstop on crime in our nation's capital."
"He's destabilized his office by firing prosecutors involved in (Jan. 6) cases and demoting widely respected supervisors, in the process cratering morale and unit cohesion and eroding the judgment, experience and institutional knowledge that are essential to the office's vital work," Young warned.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C., the largest in the country, has more than 300 prosecutors and more than 300 in support staff, who deal with both federal cases and serious local crime.
NBC News reported last week that more than 100 former prosecutors from the D.C. office sent the Senate a "statement of conscience and principle" that cited Martin's "rampant misbehavior and unfitness" since taking the post.
"Mr. Martin's evident partisanship raises serious concerns about whether he will perform the duties of U.S. Attorney 'without fear or favor,' as required, and regardless of political affiliation," those former prosecutors wrote.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has served in the Senate since 1981. He's seen the erosion of norms and the eradication of competence that comes with a Trump presidency.
And, like the vast majority of Republicans in Congress, Grassley appears to have no interest – or fortitude – in addressing any of that, for clear fear of the possible political peril from an enraged Trump. A Grassley spokesperson stood on precedent last week, telling St. Louis Public Radio that the Senate has not had a hearing to confirm a U.S. attorney in more than 40 years and won't be holding one for Martin.
And that explains how Martin got where he is – uniquely unqualified for the job, publicly unhinged in his approach and utterly invulnerable to the prospect of being held responsible by people like Grassley, who will warm his old bones by the fire as Trump's arsonists burn down our institutions.
Follow Paste BN columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan