Donald Trump’s pick to head the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., is running into roadblocks in the Senate.
Ed Martin’s confirmation vote won’t be taking place Thursday, with Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying, “It’s my understanding that we are not going to move forward on the Martin nomination.”
The reasoning for this is not clear, although aides for the committee chair, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, said that a vote on Martin could take place at a future date. In recent days, though, Martin’s nomination has faced increased scrutiny over his comments criticizing police officers at the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
Martin has has long been an election denialist and apologist for the Capitol insurrection, but Senate Republicans have other concerns about him too: He’s made several attacks against some of them, including Senators Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and John Cornyn, for, in his view, standing against Republican priorities and insufficiently supporting the president.
Martin also didn’t disclose to the Senate that he had made over 200 appearances on far-right and Russian state media outlets from 2016 to 2024. Martin also has been criticized for praising a January 6 rioter, Timothy Hale-Cussanelli, with a long history of antisemitic comments who has posted pictures of himself dressed as Hitler.
In the past few months, Martin has served as the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., and gone on a far-right crusade threatening legal action against Trump and Elon Musk critics, including Democrats in Congress, journalists, and even Georgetown University. Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin has called for Martin to be investigated by the Justice Department’s inspector general for violating the law and ignoring legal ethics.
Normally, U.S. attorney nominees don’t come with this much controversy or negative news coverage. Will all of this be enough to sink Martin’s nomination? Trump has ignored media criticism in his appointments before, so he may very well force his Senate allies to ram Martin through regardless of how they feel.
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