Trump elected a superior federal prosecutor with the Missouri ties, and who defended the demonstrators of January 6

Updated on February 17, 2025 at 14:41 pm et

The main federal prosecutor in Washington DC has an unusual background history.

It has no previous experience in the processing of violations of the law. Instead, he has defended the people accused of breaking it, after the Capitol’s riots on January 6.

Ed Martin advanced false claims about electoral fraud in Swing states in 2020, and spoke in a bustling demonstration in Washington the day before the siege in the Capitol.

“Thank you for standing with all the Patriots by your side,” Martin told the crowd four years ago. “And thanks for supporting our president. But remember, what they are stealing is not just an election. It is our future.”

The Department of Justice charged more than 1,500 people with crimes in or near the Capitol. And Martin defended some of them in court already sit at a meeting that offered financial support to their families.

Last year He told Not impressed podcast That 99% of the accused of the Capitol were normal people.

“I have never seen anything so unfair in terms of … how these people are characterized, you know, insurrectionists and criminals, all this,” Martin said.

Now back in office, President Trump has granted clemency to all the defendants of January 6. And the He chose Martin As the US prosecutor in DC

Martin has fired about two dozen prosecutors who worked in those cases of January 6. They had fewer job protections because they were in a state of trial. And he released a review of how the Department of Justice used a position of obstruction against many of the uproar.

“This review of the use of the obstruction charge is outrageous and meaningless,” said Randall Eliason, who directed the public corruption unit in the DCU lawyer’s office for years.

“There was no serious injustice here, there is no misconduct on the part of people when doing these cases,” said Eliason, who now teaches laws at George Washington University. “They were doing their job. And so that the new US prosecutor. Uu. Morality in the office “.

Martin has been publishing on the social media site, X. promised to investigate people who interpose or threaten the Dux team making cuts to federal agencies. Elon Musk wrote to the billionaire that he would persecute people who would act illegally or in an unusual “until the ends of the earth” to hold them responsible.

Eliason said prosecutors build criminal cases. They do not investigate the violations of ethics.

“I mean, if you look at Martin’s background, he has no experience as a prosecutor,” Eliason said. “He is a politician and that is exactly how he is acting.”

This week, seven Democrats from the House of Representatives wrote the guard dog of the Department of Justice, asking him to investigate Martin for possible ethics violations. They said that after joining the government, Martin moved to fire the case of a fuss of the Capitol, while he was still on the list of papers as a man defense lawyer.

Martin did not return a request for comments for this story. But in an interview with WJLA, a television station in Washington, he said it was an honor to serve as a US prosecutor. And that he has been in close contact with the police in DC on how to make the streets safer for elderly children and residents.

Martin said he wants to protect the community. But the defense lawyers for a long time here say that some of the publications on Martin’s social networks could end as evidence in court, if it moves to process Musk and Doge’s critics.

Sara Kropf, from Kropf Moseley’s law firm, said jurors could be an important control for prosecutors in the city.

“It is an intelligent jury pool, it is a jury group focused, it is an open -minded jury group, but it is one that also understands the policy of what is happening,” Kropf said.

Now more than ever, he said, it is important that people in DC are presented for the jury’s duty.