Ed Martin’s unusual activity jeopardizes nomination to lead DC office

As interim head of the office, Martin is now aiming to assume the U.S. attorney role permanently. But the reactions to Martin’s unconventional behavior, from support to skepticism and dismay, suggest his path to Senate confirmation could be rocky.

Trump nominated Martin for the position of U.S. attorney last week. The president said Martin, a longtime lawyer and former Missouri Republican Party chairman, was “highly respected” and “has been doing a great job … fighting tirelessly to restore Law and Order, and make our Nation’s Capital Safe and Beautiful Again.”

Washington’s office is unique in that it prosecutes both federal and local crime. Martin has signaled he plans to prioritize street crime, vowing to go after “thugs with guns” who are driving violence in the nation’s capital. Homicides dropped significantly in 2024 but are up 25% in 2025 compared to this time last year.

But in addition to its local responsibilities, the Washington office is politically significant for Trump. It drove all the nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 prosecutions, and the president is now moving to install loyal supporters there who will not just undo that work but also review all of it and punish any Department of Justice employees involved in perceived overzealousness. Trump has found Attorney General Pam Bondi to be an ally in that endeavor, and Martin even more so.

Martin’s letters of inquiry

One of Martin’s more unusual moves came when he sent warnings, which he called “letters of inquiry,” to two Democratic lawmakers, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), expressing concern that they had made “threats against public officials.”

Garcia posted his letter on X, which Martin wrote in response to Garcia saying in a television interview that constituents wanted Democrats to “bring actual weapons to this bar fight.” Garcia later indicated the remark was metaphorical.

Martin has also written letters offering his services to billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, who is working as the leader of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.

After WIRED revealed the names of six young engineers working for DOGE, Musk, who owns X, falsely accused a person who shared the names on his platform of having committed a “crime” and suspended the person’s account. The following day, Martin swooped in with a letter to Musk, instructing him to refer “any questionable conduct” to his office. Interfering with DOGE could “break numerous laws,” Martin said in the letter, which he shared publicly on his X account. Martin wrote a second letter to Musk, “sent only via X,” Martin said.

Martin has also used his X account to target individuals and suggest they are the subjects of criminal investigations.

He shared a media story about former special counsel Jack Smith, writing on X that Smith should “save [his] receipts” and “#NoOneIsAboveTheLaw.” Martin also shared a video of a woman on TikTok calling for Musk to be assassinated.

“We’ll put you in the system. Talk soon, M’am. #NoOneIsAboveTheLaw,” Martin wrote.

‘Cowboy-ish’

Martin’s unreserved approach has befuddled legal experts. Former U.S. Attorney John Fishwick of Virginia told the Washington Examiner it looked “cowboy-ish.”

“He’s scrolling X, scrolling and looking for things that he thinks has crossed the line, and he’s firing off a letter, when a real investigation is not done that way,” Fishwick said.

Fishwick added that if Martin planned to continue that route, he should do so more even-handedly because “people are threatening on both sides of the partisan divide.”

Former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade, a vocal Trump critic, said some of Martin’s activity has been “highly irregular and highly inappropriate.”

“It is also the policy of the Department of Justice to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation,” McQuade told the Washington Examiner.

She added that speaking about investigations could tip off targets or prematurely damage a person’s reputation.

A coalition of more than two dozen groups that advocate press freedom also criticized Martin, saying his letters to Musk served to chill free speech, were “unbecoming,” and possibly amounted to misconduct.

“Vaguely insinuating that wide swaths of constitutionally-protected speech and activity could invite criminal investigations and prosecutions may already violate [a lawyer’s code of conduct] and other rules of professional conduct,” the coalition wrote.

Undecided senators

Some members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the panel responsible for vetting Martin’s nomination, did not commit to supporting him when asked about his nomination.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who shares Martin’s Missouri roots, told the Washington Examiner he has “lots of opinions on Ed, all good” and that “he’d be great” as a U.S. attorney. Hawley, however, indicated he was not ready to commit to voting to confirm him.

“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to many of my colleagues about him,” Hawley said.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said he had not reviewed any information about Martin yet.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), an occasional swing vote, told the HuffPost Martin would have “a real challenge” getting confirmed.

“I want people to go into the FBI and the DOJ and not be guilty of the very thing that they’ve criticized their predecessors for,” Tillis said.

Martin dismisses his own client’s case

Martin spoke at Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally in protest of the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021, and went on to defend a handful of rioters, including Joseph Padilla, who was convicted of assaulting police during the attack on the Capitol.

After Trump appointed Martin as the interim head of the Washington, D.C., office, Martin signed a motion to dismiss Padilla’s charges while he was still also serving as a defense attorney in the case. The move, though in line with Trump’s executive order to terminate open cases related to Jan. 6, prompted a bar complaint against Martin, which remains under review.

Operating as both a prosecutor and defense lawyer warrants “a full investigation” by Missouri’s Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, the activist group that filed the complaint wrote.

Martin sent an email to his staff, reported by Reuters, saying he “stopped all involvement” in the case more than a year and a half ago.

Who is Ed Martin?

Early in his career, Martin led the Human Rights Office for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. He later worked as chief of staff for former Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt but abruptly resigned after about a year in the role after he was accused of improperly deleting work emails. He unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2010 and state attorney general in 2012.

Martin has worked in private practice for about two decades and recently served as president of the conservative nonprofit Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund.

Article III Project founder Mike Davis touted Martin as “bold and fearless” and said he is going to “clean house in the DC U.S Attorney’s Office — an epicenter of the lawfare and political persecution.”

Martin has never worked as a prosecutor or judge, which is atypical for someone hoping to lead the largest U.S. attorney’s office in the country.

Brendan Ballou, a former federal prosecutor who worked on Jan. 6 cases, told the Washington Examiner that “the fact that [Martin] has no prosecutorial experience is really concerning for a U.S. Attorney’s Office that prosecutes not just street-level crime, but also national security crimes.”

He said it would be “dangerous for public safety in D.C. and concerning for white-collar crime against the government and concerning for national security if Martin were confirmed.”

Ballou also noted that an “experienced prosecutor” would not publicly speak about investigations before, or even after, an indictment, as Martin has appeared to do.

“If you add more information … you risk the defense being able to argue that they were selectively prosecuted or that a jury pool was tainted and can’t render a fair verdict,” he said.

Trump’s lawyers

Martin has repeatedly described himself as the “president’s lawyer.” When his office posted on social media on Monday that it served as “Trumps’ lawyers,” many critics from across the political spectrum were quick to point out that the sentiment was out of sync with a U.S. attorney’s job description.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“I guess this is the non-politicization of the law enforcement?” Stephen Richer, a Republican former Arizona county recorder, wrote.

Martin’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.