Martin’s clashes cost him jobs as U.S. attorney and as head of the Justice Department’s “weaponization” group.
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Justice Department official Ed Martin, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump who clashed with other Trump officials over his undisciplined handling of investigations, is leaving his post after a turbulent tenure, the president said in a social media post Friday.
The departure caps Martin’s short, contentious career at the Justice Department, where he served as the interim U.S. attorney for D.C. and, most recently, as the department’s top pardon attorney, helping to determine who should receive pardons from the president.
During his tenure, Martin, who has maintained a close relationship with Trump, rankled Attorney General Todd Blanche and other Justice Department officials as he deployed unconventional tactics in pursuit of investigations.
Trump said in his social media post that Martin would be leaving to engage in legal fights surrounding the congressional elections in November and the presidential contest in 2028.
“Ed is now leaving to go outside to fight Legal Battles for the upcoming Midterm Election, and the Presidential Election of 2028,” Trump wrote in his social media post. “I know he will do an outstanding job, ensure Free, Fair, and Honest Elections, and strongly advance our Constitutional Rights.”
Martin, known for his signature khaki trench coat and prolific social media posts, did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking about what legal battles he was anticipating in the upcoming election.
He briefly responded to Trump’s post on social media, saying: “Proud to serve. Fight Fight Fight.”
Martin, who before his stint in the Justice Department under Trump had never served as a federal prosecutor, is a longtime antiabortion activist who helped plan and finance the rally that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Those credentials earned him Trump’s nomination to be the top prosecutor in the nation’s capital. During his 15-week tenure as the interim U.S. attorney in D.C., he was criticized by staffers who felt he knew little about how to lead prosecutions and investigations.
His stint heading the U.S. attorney’s office was also marked by his threats to investigate Trump’s perceived political adversaries, as well as the firings and demotions of career prosecutors who had handled cases involving the president and the Jan. 6 attack.
But Trump pulled Martin’s nomination to fill the post permanently because he did not have enough support, even in a Republican-led Senate, to win confirmation. The president instead named Martin to a senior Justice Department role that did not require Senate approval, while replacing him as U.S. attorney with Jeanine Pirro.
At the Justice Department, Martin served as both the pardon attorney and the head of the Weaponization Working Group, which was tasked with reviewing special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions of Trump and other examples of what Trump describes as prosecutorial abuse.
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But top Justice Department officials, put off by Martin’s aggressive and unorthodox style, in February stripped him of his role leading the Weaponization Work Group, removing most of his responsibilities at the Justice Department. They also moved his office from Justice Department headquarters to a smaller building in Northeast Washington where the pardon office is, distancing him from the most powerful figures in the department.
None of that tension was in evidence publicly on Friday.
“Ed Martin is a patriot who loves this nation. We thank him for his service to the Department, @POTUS and the American people,” Blanche wrote in a post Friday. “We look forward to seeing his future successes!”
Before being sidelined, Martin played a prominent role in several largely unsuccessful prosecutions of Trump’s political foes, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI director James B. Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California).
While pursuing those investigations, Martin posed for a photo outside James’s home in Brooklyn, ostensibly as part of the mortgage fraud investigation he was leading into her. That drew the ire of Blanche, then the deputy attorney general, who grew frustrated with Martin’s undisciplined handling of investigations, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The Schiff case led to a highly unusual situation in which other federal prosecutors began examining Martin’s actions. In November, The Washington Post reported that prosecutors had questioned a witness in the Schiff case about her contact with Martin and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte.
The inquiries suggested that investigators were looking at whether Martin and Pulte used inappropriate tactics to launch probes of Schiff and others. The questions probed whether the two Trump officials had divulged information about the Schiff investigation to people who were not authorized to be a part of it.
Martin also caused friction within the department when he sent a letter to an attorney for an FBI agent who was among the first to respond to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, suggesting the agent was under investigation for playing a role in a defamation suit against right-wing pundit Alex Jones.
Martin was ordered by top Justice Department officials to rescind the letter — and make clear there was no investigation — after the agent’s attorney publicized it on social media.
Trump did not specify Friday whether Martin was joining a Republican-affiliated group focused on election litigation or whether he would pursue those efforts on his own.
Martin had for years cultivated a reputation as a hard-line Republican activist and prominent election skeptic in Missouri before joining the Justice Department in Trump’s second term.
At the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C., Martin launched an “Election Accountability Unit,” which he said at the time was needed because “Americans do not have confidence in our election systems.”
Martin previously lobbed voter fraud allegations after losing his own 2010 congressional race in Missouri. He began his political career as the appointed chair of the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners in 2005 and 2006.
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