The man trying to turn prosecutors loose against Trump’s enemies

Will Donald Trump succeed in his long-held goal of weaponizing the Justice Department against his political enemies?

Much of the answer will depend on the man he’s appointed to head the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC. That’s longtime conservative activist Ed Martin — or, “Eagle Ed Martin,” per his X handle.

Martin has made his priorities unmistakable. He wants to target Democratic politicians, the media, progressive groups, and the officials who investigated Trump. Meanwhile, he’s advocating for January 6 rioters and looking the other way when Republicans get into trouble. His office dismissed a case against former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and failed to approve the DC police’s request to arrest Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) for domestic violence.

DOJ prosecutors take an oath to the Constitution and typically describe their mission as impartially administering justice. Martin, though, publicly called his team “President Trumps’ [sic] lawyers” on social media.

There’s no mystery as to why this is happening: This is what Trump wants. Indeed, Martin was initially put into this job as a temporary appointee. But according to CNN, Trump was thrilled with what he was doing, and decided to nominate him to the post permanently.

So who is Ed Martin — and how did he become the hatchet man for Trump’s politicization of justice?

The answer tells us a lot about how defense of political violence, embrace of legal combat against Democrats and progressives, and utter loyalty to Trump became a ticket to advancement in today’s Republican Party.

A review of Martin’s career history suggests he personally hasn’t changed much. He’s long been an inveterate self-promoter who becomes embroiled in turmoil and faces ethical questions wherever he goes.

Indeed, Martin spent over two decades in the trenches of conservative activism, mostly focused on the politics of Missouri. After distinguishing himself with legal work for anti-abortion advocates, he was named chief of staff for Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt (R) in 2006.

But Martin’s stint in state government was controversial. “I thought very highly of Ed before he took that job,” a former state employee told the St. Louis Riverfront Times in 2010. “When he got that power, he became a ruthless animal.” It also turned out to be short-lived — Martin stepped down a little over a year after being appointed, after a scandal over whether he was complying with the state’s public records laws.

Yet Martin remained active in the conservative advocacy world, running nonprofits like the Missouri Roundtable for Life and the Missouri Club for Growth, and then helping organize St. Louis’s first “Tea Party” gathering in protest of Obama’s presidency in 2009.

After trying and failing to win public office himself — he lost a bid for Congress in 2010 and for state attorney general in 2012 — he got named chair of the Missouri Republican Party, but his two-year stint left the party in debt.

Fortunately for Martin, he had managed to ingratiate himself with famed St. Louis-based conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, who at the age of 90 named him her successor at the helm of her advocacy operation. (He beat out the other contender for the job, former Rep. Michele Bachmann). This, too, was to result in bitter controversy and legal proceedings. But Martin did help arrange Schafly’s endorsement of Trump during the 2016 primaries. (It seems like a distant memory now, but this was no sure thing, as many conservative activists preferred Ted Cruz and viewed Trump as ideologically suspicious.)

Once Trump was in office, Martin had another brief gig as a pro-Trump commentator for CNN, which came to an end when he disparaged two of his co-panelists as “Black racists.” Moving to Fairfax County, Virginia, he hosted a radio show and made a failed bid for local office but remained a fairly obscure figure.

What changed that for him was “Stop the Steal” and January 6. Martin embraced Trump’s effort to dispute the 2020 results early, helping organize and speaking at rallies in Washington, DC, and urging Congress not to certify Biden’s win. (Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander later testified that Martin was “kind of like a mentor” to him.)

On January 6 Martin tweeted that he was “at the Capitol right now,” and that there was a “Rowdy crowd but nothing out of hand. Ignore the #FakeNews.” (Per NBC News, video footage shows Martin outside on the Capitol grounds but there’s no evidence he entered any restricted area or the building itself.)

Much of the bipartisan political establishment soon recoiled in horror at the attack on the Capitol. But in February 2021, Martin dismissed it as the “Pelosi hoax.” He eventually represented three January 6 rioters charged with assaulting police officers, ignored the House January 6 committee’s subpoena for his testimony, and advanced conspiracy theories that “January 6th was staged.”

All this solidified a new place of prominence for him in Trumpworld, where loyalty matters above all. The first sign of his newfound standing in the GOP came in May 2024, when Martin was named deputy policy director of the Republican National Convention’s platform committee. After Trump won, he was initially tapped to be the chief of staff for the Office of Management and Budget — but at some point, he was tapped for the US attorney’s job in DC instead, a far more powerful job than any he’s previously held.

So in the end, years of tireless conservative activism seemed to get Martin nowhere. It took a willingness to defend the indefensible to get him his big break.

So, will Martin actually succeed in prosecuting Trump’s enemies — and in bending an office of several hundred prosecutors to his will?

Already, drama is unfolding behind the scenes. Last week, Martin wanted the assets of a Biden administration climate change grant initiative frozen — but Denise Cheung, the head of the US Attorney’s Office’s criminal division, said she wouldn’t do that without seeing evidence of a crime. Martin then told her to resign, and she did.

Yet Martin’s efforts so far have also entailed a lot of bluster that seems fit for social media, but unlikely to go over very well in court. For instance, he launched an initiative called “Operation Whirlwind” designed to investigate Democrats for purportedly violent rhetoric, but his examples are obviously baseless. (It’s named after a five-year-old comment from Chuck Schumer, in which Schumer said conservative Supreme Court justices had “released the whirlwind and you will pay the price” for opposing abortion rights.)

So it’s far from clear whether Martin can build a team that can make politicized cases that are halfway plausible enough to hold up in court. But even investigations that don’t result in charges can be terrifying and financially ruinous for their targets.

Martin will also, at some point, need Senate confirmation, and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said last week that he could have “a real challenge” getting confirmed. But Senate Republicans have rolled over for all Trump’s nominees so far. Would they really reject Trump’s favorite prosecutor?

This story was adapted from the On the Right newsletter. New editions drop every Wednesday. Sign up here.