WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would replace Ed Martin as his nominee for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia after the longtime right-wing activist faced opposition from a key Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“He is a terrific person. He wasn’t getting the support,” Trump said of Martin. “I’m very disappointed in that. … I’m one person. I can only lift that little phone so many times in a day.”
Trump said they would be announcing a new nominee for the position in “over the next two days.” Martin’s term as interim U.S. attorney is set to expire on May 20.
“We have somebody else that will be great,” Trump said, without elaborating on who that person would be.
Trump called Martin “unbelievable” and “terrific” and said he hoped to find another spot for him “whether it’s DOJ or whatever in some capacity.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said on Tuesday that he would not back Martin’s nomination after meeting with him on Monday night. Tillis’ opposition meant Martin was unlikely to be reported out of Senate the Judiciary Committee, which has been considering his nomination to be D.C.’s top prosecutor.
Martin had served since Inauguration Day as interim U.S. attorney for D.C., where he oversaw the firings of Jan. 6 prosecutors, demoted others, and opened an investigation into the office’s handling of the Capitol riot investigation.
“If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any district except the district where Jan. 6 happened, the protest happened, I’d probably support him, but not in this district,” Tillis said Tuesday.
Martin, who had no prosecutorial experience when he took the position, had faced critical questions from senators over comments he made about a far-right Jan. 6 defendant who the Justice Department called “an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer” and who had photographed himself in an Adolph Hitler style mustache.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who had placed a hold on Martin’s nomination, said Thursday that Martin was “unfit” for the position and that he had “abused his position as interim U.S. Attorney to advance a dangerous agenda that places the president’s personal interests above those of the public, tramples the rule of law, and puts our democracy at risk.”
In a statement, Schiff said Martin “opened political investigations where there was no evidence to warrant them,” and “fired, demoted and forced the resignation of dedicated professionals who refused to go forward with his unethical edicts and those of others in the department.”
