What C&L has already written about Martin’s conduct as acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia should disqualify him from becoming the permanent head of that office.
But now ProPublica has done a deep dive into Martin’s record. Let’s just say it confirms every qualm any decent person would have about this guy wielding serious DOJ power and adds plenty more.
“His actions have led to more than $600,000 in legal settlements or judgments against Martin or his employers in a handful of cases,” ProPublica found. In one lawsuit, a judge “found him in civil contempt, citing his “willful disregard” of a court order, and a jury found him liable for defamation.”
He is also as woefully unqualified as Pete Hegseth. Martin has no experience as a prosecutor and has never even taken a case to trial, according to ProPublica. Yet he is the acting leader of the largest U.S. attorney’s office in the country and directs some of our most important legal cases. They include “legal disputes arising out of Congress, national security matters, public corruption and civil rights,” ProPublica says, That’s in addition to “homicides, drug trafficking and many other local crimes.”
More from ProPublica:
Martin “has butchered the position, effectively destroying it as a vehicle by which to pursue justice and turning it into a political arm of the current administration,” says an open letter signed by more than 100 former prosecutors who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia under Democratic and Republican presidents.
Already, Martin has been the subject of at least four disciplinary complaints with the D.C. and Missouri bars, of which one was dismissed and the other three appear to be pending. Two of the complaints came after he moved to dismiss charges against a Jan. 6 rioter whom he had previously represented and for whom he was still listed as counsel of record. (The first complaint was dismissed after the D.C. bar’s disciplinary panel concluded that Martin had dismissed the case as a result of Trump’s pardons and so did not violate any rules.) The third was filed in March by a group of Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. Senate. The fourth was submitted last week by a group of former Jan. 6 prosecutors and members of the conservative-leaning Society for the Rule of Law. It argues that Martin’s actions so far “threaten to undermine the integrity of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the legal profession in the District of Columbia.” If Martin has responded to any of the complaints, those responses have not been made public.
There are plenty more of what should be disqualifying details in the full ProPublica article, including Martin’s ouster from the conservative Eagle Forum board for his “deplorable” mismanagement and poor leadership.
Martin was hired, then fired from CNN after only five months, after what ProPublica described as “controversial on-air remarks,” such as his defense of Roy Moore’s comments on slavery and the Holocaust. Martin’s defense is not very surprising, given his championing of this guy:
Last summer, Martin gave an award to a convicted Jan. 6 rioter named Timothy Hale-Cusanelli. According to court records, Hale-Cusanelli held “long-standing white supremacist and Nazi beliefs,” wore a “Hitler mustache” and allegedly told his co-workers that “Hitler should have finished the job.” (In court, Hale’s attorney said his client “makes no excuses for his derogatory language,” but the government’s description of him was “simply misleading.”)
After hugging and thanking Hale-Cusanelli at the ceremony, Martin told the audience that one of his goals was “to make sure that the world — and especially America — hears more from Tim Hale, because he’s extraordinary.”
After CNN, Martin found a new home on Russian media:
Unbowed, Martin went on to make more than 150 appearances on the Russia Today TV channel and Sputnik radio, both Russian state-owned media outlets, first reported by The Washington Post. On RT and Sputnik, Martin railed against the “Russia hoax,” criticized the DOJ investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller and questioned American support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion by saying the U.S. was “wasting money in Kiev for Zelensky and his corrupt guys.” The State Department would later say RT and Sputnik were “critical elements in Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem.” The Treasury Department sanctioned RT employees in 2024. The DOJ indicted two RT employees for conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to fail to register as foreign agents.
As interim U.S. attorney, Martin has used his position to “issue a series of threats” that have mostly “gone nowhere,” ProPublica reported:
In his three months as interim U.S. attorney for D.C., Martin has used his position to issue a series of threats. He’s vowed not to hire anyone affiliated with Georgetown Law unless the school drops any DEI policies. He vowed to Musk that he would “pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people.” He publicly told former special counsel Jack Smith and Smith’s lawyers to “[s]ave your receipts.” And in another open letter addressed to Musk and Musk’s deputy, Martin wrote that “if people are discovered to have broken the law or even acted simply unethically, we will investigate them and we will chase them to the end of the Earth to hold them accountable.”
Fortunately, Sen. Adam Schiff has put a hold on Martin’s nomination. “Typically, the Senate Judiciary Committee approves U.S. attorney picks by voice vote without a hearing. But in Martin’s case, all 10 Democrats on the committee have asked for a public hearing to debate the nomination, calling Martin “a nominee whose objectionable record merits heightened scrutiny by this Committee,” ProPublica said.
But Martin couldn’t even submit the paperwork without screwing up and looking like a liar as well:
“According to documents obtained by ProPublica, he has sent the Judiciary Committee three supplemental letters that correct omissions about his background. In an earlier submission, Martin did not disclose any of his appearances on Russian state-owned media. But just before The Washington Post reported that Martin had, in fact, made more than 150 such appearances, he sent yet another letter correcting his previous statements.
“I regret the errors and apologize for any inconvenience,” he wrote.
Like I said, call your senators and tell them to do everything they can to block this guy from becoming the permanent U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.