The Senate Judiciary Committee rarely holds hearings on nominees for U.S. attorney, typically referring them to the full chamber for a vote. But opponents of Ed Martin, President Trump’s pick for top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., say his behavior demands the greater scrutiny that a public hearing would provide.
Since being named the acting U.S. attorney in January, Mr. Martin has challenged norms, and sunk morale, in one of the nation’s most important prosecutors’ offices, in Washington. He has ordered mass firings of lawyers who brought charges against Capitol rioters, hurled threats at political adversaries and strong-armed subordinates to take action they deemed inappropriate.
Despite the private misgivings of some Republicans, Mr. Martin appears to have a solid chance of squeaking through on a party-line vote in the view of congressional aides in both parties.
On Monday, a group of around 100 former assistant U.S. attorneys called on the Judiciary Committee’s chairman, Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, to “set a public confirmation hearing” that permits witnesses, including prosecutors Mr. Martin fired, to testify against his confirmation.
“Martin’s flagrant misconduct is a danger to law enforcement, the rule of law, and the United States Constitution itself,” wrote one of the group’s organizers.
Senate Democrats are also expected to make a similar push for confirmation hearings later this week.
“There are a lot of people nominated to be U.S. attorneys and he’s got to be the least prepared person I’ve seen,” said Representative Glenn Ivey, a Maryland Democrat who served as a prosecutor in Washington’s U.S. attorneys’ office in the early 1990s. “I worked under Clinton and Bush, and the office pretty much ran as an apolitical operation. He’s different.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Grassley did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Mr. Martin’s office did not respond.
Mr. Trump nominated Mr. Martin, a lawyer from Missouri who represented rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to permanently run the office in February.
On Monday, Mr. Martin issued a vague warning — “no one is above the law” — to Representative Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, after she appeared to shove aside a camera phone pointed at her by a man associated with the far-right activist Laura Loomer.
Mr. Martin’s targeting of political rivals, while in sync with the president’s demands for retribution, has alienated some Senate Republicans, including Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and could complicate his chances of confirmation given that Democrats are expected to unanimously oppose his confirmation.
But it remains to be seen if those complaints will overcome pressure from White House officials who view Mr. Martin’s bombast as in line with Mr. Trump’s demand that Justice Department leaders execute his demands for payback and provocation.
Last month, Democrats on the committee asked the group that governs the legal bar in Washington to investigate Mr. Martin, saying that he had “abused” prosecutorial power and was unfit to practice law in the district.
In a letter, the senators, led by Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the committee’s top Democrat, also accused Mr. Martin of having violated professional standards by refusing to recuse himself from a case involving a Capitol rioter he had technically represented at the time and dismissing charges against the man.
They also cited his threats against the law firm representing Jack Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Mr. Trump.
In February, Denise Cheung, a top federal prosecutor working under Mr. Martin, abruptly resigned after she refused Mr. Martin’s demand that she open a criminal investigation into an unnamed government vendor and order its bank to freeze unspent assets. The vendor is believed to be Citibank, and the assets in question are thought to be the $20 billion identified by the leadership of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Ms. Cheung said in a resignation letter that she believed there was not sufficient evidence to restrict the nonprofits’ access to the accounts.
Mr. Martin also pushed to present evidence against Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, to a federal grand jury over comments he made in 2020 about Supreme Court justices, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Mr. Schumer apologized for the statement, saying it was overheated rhetoric and not a call for violence.
Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons. More about Glenn Thrush
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