Trump's pick to be D.C.'s top prosecutor is a MAGA firebrand
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Ed Martin (center) in 2023. Photo: Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images
Ed Martin is poised to be the new top prosecutor in D.C. — a MAGA true believer who dismissed Jan. 6 investigators and says he will be tougher on violent criminals in the city.
Why it matters: The U.S. Attorney for D.C. has a big portfolio: white collar and national security investigations, for example, but also nearly all street-level crime in the District.
State of play: President Trump nominated Martin for the permanent position on Monday, pending Senate approval.
- Denise Cheung, Martin's top deputy who led the criminal division, abruptly quit Tuesday after refusing a Trump administration request to "order a bank to freeze accounts of an unnamed contractor," the NY Times reported.
- Cheung says in a letter obtained by NYT that Martin had asked her to step down following the standoff, which involved EPA grants.
Martin — a firebreathing podcaster who posts Psalm passages on his X account — is garnering national controversy. And praise from Trump, who said he is "fighting tirelessly" to "make our Nation's Capital Safe and Beautiful Again."
Since taking office, he has shown his loyalty to Trump and Elon Musk with posts on X.
- Martin posted letters with DOJ letterhead threatening investigations into individuals that Musk claims are stymieing his DOGE efforts.
Locally, when he became interim appointee shortly after Trump began his second term, Martin first met with Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Pamela Smith, telling WJLA they discussed "how do we get the streets safer."
- He says the office has a backlog of "350 murder cases." And he wants Congress to fill vacant judge seats so he can move cases faster.
- "The thugs with guns have to be stopped," he told WJLA. (Martin's office and his personal X account did not respond to Axios' messages requesting an interview.)
- After dismissing lawyers who worked on Jan. 6 riot cases, Martin told his staff on Friday he plans to hire 20 new prosecutors, the NY Times reported.
Context: Martin moved to affluent Great Falls, Virginia, in 2018 with his wife and four children, per the Washington Post. He led an unsuccessful campaign for Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
- Before then, he was in Missouri, where he chaired the state GOP and made two unsuccessful bids for Congress — losing once and withdrawing before election another time.
Martin hails from a conservative wing of the party tied to Phyllis Schlafly, an activist who led a campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment.
- In 2016, he co-authored with Schlafly "The Conservative Case for Trump," which published the day after she died, and a few months before Trump won the presidential election.