Top Lawyers, Jan. 6 Prosecutors Urge DC Court to Investigate Trump Appointee for ‘Violations of His Oath of Office’ in Scathing Letter
AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File
A group of attorneys — including a former judge, former member of Congress, and several January 6 prosecutors — have signed a letter urging the D.C. Court of Appeals to investigate Ed Martin, President Donald Trump’s nominee and the current interim acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
Martin was highly controversial even before his nomination, during his wild few months as a CNN contributor, as an organizer of the “Stop the Steal” movement promoting baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election (including speaking at a rally in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021), and representing some of the January 6th rioters. He was the first U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. in at least half a century to be appointed without ever serving as a judge or federal prosecutor. CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig, who has been a federal prosecutor, lambasted Martin’s “toxic blend of traits” that included being wholly unqualified, bringing a “startling arrogance to the job,” and “most problematically, he is explicitly political.”
Since Martin began as interim acting U.S. Attorney, he has urged judges to remove some of the few remaining restrictions on the pardoned Jan. 6. rioters, and in February tweeted a statement in which he declared that the U.S. Attorneys were “President Trumps’ lawyers” (punctuation error in original) and attacked the AP.
Such actions by Martin were the impetus for the letter sent to the D.C. Court of Appeals’ Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC), the chief prosecutor for disciplinary matters involving attorneys who belong to the D.C. Bar, on Monday from attorneys who are leaders and members of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. Signatories, as identified at the end of the letter, included several prominent conservatives who have been vocal critics of Trump, Elon Musk, and others in the Trump administration:
Brendan Ballou, Former Special Counsel for Private Equity, Antitrust Division, and January 6 prosecutor
Matt Beckwith, Former Assistant United States Attorney and January 6 prosecutor
Sean Brennan, Former Assistant United States Attorney and January 6 prosecutor
Barbara Comstock, Board Member, Society for the Rule of Law Institute; former Congresswoman representing Virginia’s 10th District
George Conway, Board President, Society for the Rule of Law Institute
Stuart Gerson, Board Treasurer, Society for the Rule of Law Institute; former Acting Attorney General of the United States
Isia Jasiewicz, Former Assistant United States Attorney and January 6 prosecutor
J. Michael Luttig, Former Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
Gregg Nunziata, Executive Director, Society for the Rule of Law Institute; former Chief Nominations Counsel, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Mike Romano, Former Trial Attorney, Public Integrity Section, and January 6 prosecutor
The letter began by urging the ODC “to investigate Edward R. Martin, Jr.’s violations of the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct and subject him to appropriate sanction.”
Martin’s “position is one of enormous responsibility,” the letter continued, but he “has used his brief time in office to demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of a federal prosecutor, announcing investigations against his political opponents, aiding defendants he previously represented, and communicating improperly with those he did not.”
The letter then listed two categories of “actions” by Martin that “are not worthy of the Department of Justice, undermine the Constitutional guarantee of equal protection of law, and violate Mr. Martin’s professional obligations.”
The first was Martin’s “multiple public statements that suggested he was criminally investigating perceived political enemies of himself and the President, or would soon do so,” including letters he sent to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a law firm that had advised Special Counsel Jack Smith, the dean of Georgetown Law School, Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA), Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), as well as tweets he had posted.
One specific grievance for the letter writers was Martin’s comment that he called his office “President Trump’s lawyers.”
“Mr. Martin’s client is not President Trump; it is the United States,” they wrote. “His assertion otherwise adds further evidence that his announced investigations are politically motivated” and violates several rules in the Department of Justice Rules and D.C Bar Rules of Professional Conduct, including “mak[ing] extrajudicial comments which serve to heighten condemnation of the accused.”
The second category was Martin’s continued “improper communications” with “at least one” Jan. 6 defendant, both before and after Trump appointed him interim U.S. Attorney, noting that Martin “potentially gave legal advice to a defendant his office was prosecuting at the time.”
“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 letter concluded. “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.”
Read the press release and letter from the Society for the Rule of Law.
