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FILE – Ed Martin speaks at an event hosted by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., at the Capitol in Washington, June 13, 2023 (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File).
The Trump administration‘s top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., has used his brief time in office to “demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the role” — announcing probes against political opponents, “aiding defendants” he previously represented and “communicating improperly with those he did not” — which warrants an investigation, a group of former DOJ attorneys says.
The prosecutors, who previously worked on Jan. 6 cases, sent a letter Sunday to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel and D.C. Court of Appeals asking that Ed Martin be investigated for his actions and alleged violations of Justice Department rules prohibiting the disclosure of ongoing DOJ probes and other alleged offenses.
The group includes five former U.S. attorneys and is joined by a number of conservative lawyers from the Society for the Rule of Law and several other prominent names in the law community, including retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig and attorney Stuart Gerson, who worked for the DOJ during the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton presidencies.
“We are a group of attorneys dedicated to the protection of the rule of law in Washington, D.C. and beyond. Several of us previously served as Justice Department attorneys,” the group said. “We write today to urge you to investigate Edward R. Martin, Jr.’s violations of the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct and subject him to appropriate sanction.”
Martin, who was appointed by Trump earlier this year to be interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, has said repeatedly that he’s “expanded” the scope of his office’s probes into the Jan. 6 attack and how the U.S. views defendants who have been prosecuted and now pardoned. Martin has compared the defendants to Japanese Americans who were held at internment camps during World War II.
“Collectively, Mr. Martin’s actions threaten to undermine the integrity of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the legal profession in the District of Columbia,” the former prosecutors said Sunday. “In word and in deed he has portrayed himself as an advocate for private and political interests of others, in violation of his oath of office and the Rules of Professional Conduct. The reputation of our community depends on a prompt and thorough investigation into Mr. Martin’s violations of his professional obligations.”
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Martin has been accused of using his position to go after Trump opponents and vilify anyone who worked on Jan. 6 cases, including the group of attorneys.
“Mr. Martin’s investigations into perceived opponents of this administration do not appear to be coincidental,” the former prosecutors said. “In a since-deleted post on Twitter (X) … Martin wrote that ‘[a]s President Trumps’ [sic] lawyers, we are proud to fight to protect his leadership as our President and we are vigilant in standing against entities … that refuse to put America first.””
The group propped up multiple statements that have been made by Martin over the past few months, suggesting he was “criminally investigating perceived political enemies of himself and the President, or would soon do so,” according to the former prosecutors. Another example listed in their letter was a tweet to Trump ally and unofficial DOGE leader Elon Musk in which Martin promised to prosecute “those who impeded the work” of the Department of the Government Efficiency.
“Mr. Martin promised to chase ‘to the end[s] of the Earth’ those who have ‘broken the law or even acted simply unethically,’ adding ‘Noone [sic] is above the law,’” the former prosecutors pointed out. “Needless to say, Mr. Martin has no authority to prosecute those who commit no crime but who simply act, in his view, unethically.”
In terms of DOJ rules violations, the former attorneys alleged that Martin’s conduct violates the Justice Department’s Rule 1-7.400, which “generally prohibits the disclosure of ongoing investigations,” according to the group, among others.
“To the extent that Mr. Martin failed to coordinate his statements with the Department’s Office of Public Affairs, his discussion of these matters of national importance also violate Rule 1-7.310,” they said. “As relevant here, by violating the Department’s own rules and disclosing information that he ought not, Mr. Martin has revealed the confidences of his client. This violates Rule 1.6, which directs that a lawyer may not ‘reveal a confidence or secret of the lawyer’s client.’”
The letter also says that Martin may have violated a rule limiting an attorney’s communications. Specifically, former Jan. 6 defendant William Pope said that Martin “personally suggested” to Pope, who was representing himself at the time, that he request the government’s file on his case.
“If Mr. Pope’s assertions are true, Mr. Martin potentially gave legal advice to a defendant his office was prosecuting at the time,” the letter says. If true, this would violate the rule that “a lawyer might not be able to represent a client vigorously if the client’s adversary is a person with whom the lawyer has longstanding personal or social ties.”
Martin, a conservative activist and 2020 election denier who previously served as the head of the Missouri Republican Party, was nominated to the permanent U.S. Attorney role by Trump in February. In January, Martin oversaw the pardoning of hundreds of Capitol rioters and fired a slew of prosecutors who had been converted from temporary to permanent status in the weeks leading up to Trump’s inauguration.
The New Jersey native previously represented Jan. 6 defendants and has demoted several of his office’s senior leaders to handling low-level misdemeanors, reportedly as retribution for their work on prosecuting Jan. 6 cases involving the president’s allies and prominent defendants. Earlier this month, more than 100 former federal prosecutors signed onto a letter calling Martin an “egregiously unqualified political hack who has never served either as a prosecutor or judge,” imploring the Senate to reject his nomination.
“Mr. Martin’s client is not President Trump; it is the United States,” the former Jan. 6 prosecutors concluded Sunday. “His assertion otherwise adds further evidence that his announced investigations are politically motivated.”
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