May 6 (UPI) — President Donald Trump’s controversial nominee for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia is not likely to get the job after a key GOP senator said Tuesday he won’t support his confirmation.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he wouldn’t support Ed Martin, a “Stop the Steal” organizer who has aligned himself with Jan. 6 defendants.
Martin is a hard-right activist who had no prosecutorial experience until he was named the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia by Trump on the day of the president’s inauguration.
Tillis said he was concerned that Martin’s involvement in the defense of protesters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was too much to ignore despite the fact that Martin agreed that hundreds of individuals who were included in Trump’s mass pardons should not have been exonerated.
Tillis is part of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees Martin’s nomination, and consists of 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Mathematically, should Tillis vote against, as all the Democrats are expected to do, it would end in an 11-11 tie, and his nomination would not be favorable when delivered to the full Senate.
“If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any district except the district where Jan. 6 happened,” Tillis said Tuesday, “I’d probably support him, but not in this district.”
Martin has used his interim office to investigate the D.C. office’s efforts in regard to Jan. 6 cases, and he fired and demoted several federal prosecutors who worked on Capitol attack cases. Martin’s connection with a Jan. 6 rioter who the Justice Department had called “an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer” also provoked concerns during his nomination process.
Trump posted to his Truth Social account Monday in support of Martin, and connected him to the health of the entire country, that Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told him that Martin’s “approval is imperative in terms of doing all that has to be done to save lives and to, make America healthy again,” although it is unclear how Trump has attached Martin to health services.
“This is a passion for Ed,” continued Trump, “I hope, that the Republican Senators will make a commitment to his approval, which is now before them. Ed is coming up on the deadline for voting and, if approved, he will not let you down.”
However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Tuesday that Martin’s nomination could be in jeopardy.
“I think that would suggest that he’s probably not going to get out of committee,” Thune told reporters Tuesday when asked about Tillis is opposed to Martin’s confirmation.
Martin’s term as interim U.S. attorney expires near the end of May.
