By Allan Lengel
First off, when it comes to the Justice Department, it’s a disgrace that Ed Martin Jr., a President Trump loyalist, is employed there. He shouldn’t be.
Until recently, he was the D.C. interim U.S. Attorney, but had to step down after it became clear the U.S. Senate was not going to confirm him for the permanent position. The breaking point came when some Senate Republicans opposed him.
Martin, an election denier, wasn’t qualified for the important job. Additionally, he played a key role in helping to pardon and commute the convictions and charges of scores of Jan. 6 rioters, including those who attacked police. Before being named the interim U.S. Attorney, he represented three Jan. 6 rioters and was part of the mob outside the U.S. Capitol that day. He even posted on X: “Like Mardi Gras in DC today: love, faith and joy.”
He also fired or demoted a number of prosecutors who had done their jobs by prosecuting the rioters.
After he lost his U.S. Attorney job earlier this month, Trump named him the pardon attorney for the Justice Department—a position that involves reviewing and advising the president on pardons, commutations, and reprieves.
Which brings us to this shameful moment: Martin has vowed to take a “hard look” at two men who are serving long prison terms for leading a conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Ed White of the Associated Press reports.
“On the pardon front, we can’t leave these guys behind,” Ed Martin Jr. said this week on “The Breanna Morello Show.”
“In my opinion, these are victims just like January 6,” Martin said, referring to the rioters.
Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox were convicted in 2022 in federal court in Grand Rapids of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation cottage near Elk Rapids and using destructive devices against the governor’s security detail and any responding law enforcement officers.
Croft received nearly 20 years in prison, and Fox, of Grand Rapids, got 16 years.
The joke is that Trump vowed to clean up the “corrupt” Justice Department—when in fact, folks like Martin, a defender of the Jan. 6 rioters, are as an unethical as they come.
White of the AP reports that Martin referred to the Whitmer case as a “fed-napping” plot, not a kidnapping plot—an apparent reference to the number of undercover FBI agents and informants who had infiltrated the group and built the case.
Granted, it’s fair to question cases that involve FBI stings. But stings have been repeatedly upheld as constitutional over many years. And the U.S. Court of Appeals just recently denied the appeals by Fox and Croft.
In opposing his confirmation as U.S. Attorney in D.C., more than 100 former prosecutors signed a letter saying Martin was an “egregiously unqualified political hack who has never served either as a prosecutor or judge.”
“Martin’s flagrant misconduct is a danger to law enforcement, the rule of law, and the United States Constitution itself,” the letter said. “It would be an insult to the rule of law to deny the honorable law enforcement professionals who were unjustifiably thrown under the bus for doing their duty such an opportunity.”
We’ve seen the Trump Justice Department meddle in other cases it shouldn’t have—like the investigation into New York Mayor Eric Adams. Those corruption charges were dropped, resulting in a number of federal prosecutors quitting in protest.
When it comes to the Whitmer case, the only injustice is that Ed Martin is still part of the Justice Department—and that he’s considering sabotaging the case that was prosecuted by federal prosecutors.
