GOP senators buck Trump’s pick for D.C. U.S. attorney, imperiling bid

Republican senators balked Tuesday at confirming Ed Martin before a key May 20 deadline, triggering a possible showdown with the White House over President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for top federal prosecutor in D.C.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said he informed the White House that he opposed naming Trump’s interim appointee to a full four-year term.

“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,” Tillis, who is up for reelection next year, told reporters. “But not in this district.”

Tillis sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Martin cannot afford to lose a single Republican vote. The senator has criticized the conservative lawyer’s past support for nearly 400 Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot defendants charged with assaulting police officers, and who were among the nearly 1,600 riot participants pardoned by Trump.

Tillis said Tuesday it was important to send a message that the violent storming of the Capitol as Congress met to certify the 2020 election results was wrong and that not all of the defendants should have been pardoned by Trump.

“We have to be very, very clear that what happened on January the 6th was wrong. It was not prompted or created by other people to put those people in trouble. They made a stupid decision, and they disgraced the United States by absolutely destroying the Capitol,” Tillis told reporters. “There were some people that were over-prosecuted, but there were some two or three hundred of them that should have never gotten a pardon, and he [Martin] agreed with that.”

Two people close to the nomination process said the committee declined to list Martin on its agenda this week, a required step before voting, because Martin lacks the unanimous support of its 12 Republican members. This means the earliest a committee vote could happen is May 22, but it is unclear whether Tillis’s or other senators’ positions will change.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who also serves on the Judiciary Committee, defended Martin but said his bid “is up to the president now. … Does he want to continue to push this?”

Hawley added: “The president has a lot of influence; if he really wants someone, he might be able to get Senator Tillis to change his mind. But I think it’d probably take the president to do that.”

The Trump White House stood by Martin’s nomination. And Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the committee’s chairman, declined to pronounce Martin’s hopes dead: “I wouldn’t say it’s over until it’s over.”

On Truth Social, Trump posted about Martin on Monday evening, “According to many but, in particular, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his approval is IMPERATIVE in terms of doing all that has to be done to SAVE LIVES and to, MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN.” The president added: “If approved, HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN. When some day in the future you look back at your Vote for Ed Martin, you will be very proud of what you have done for America and America’s Health.”

White House spokesman Alex Pfeiffer made a similar case after Tillis’s remarks Tuesday, writing on X: “Ed Martin is a fantastic U.S. Attorney for D.C. and will continue to implement the President’s law-and-order agenda in Washington. He is the right man for the job and we look forward to his confirmation.”

Behind the scenes, Martin appeared to face deeper challenges in the Senate, while the White House could have other options. If Martin is not confirmed by May 20, the end of his 120-day interim appointment, by law the 24 judges on the U.S. District Court in D.C. can name a new interim U.S. attorney until one is confirmed. Martin could return to office if his nomination is confirmed later.

However, if the administration does not wish to let the court decide, it can restart the 120-day clock by naming another appointee to take Martin’s post anytime before May 20. That happened during Trump’s first term in May 2020, when he withdrew the nomination of interim D.C. U.S. attorney Tim Shea after he served 119 days, and appointed an acting successor, Michael R. Sherwin, who was in office at the time of the Capitol riot.

Grassley has acknowledged the controversies swirling around Martin, whose actions in office and incendiary commentary on social media and in traditional media have drawn roughly 500 written questions from senators, far more than normal. Martin has omitted 400 of 1,900 known writings or media statements that he was expected to disclose, top committee Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin (Illinois) has said.

Martin, a Trump “Stop the Steal” organizer who raised money and advocated for Capitol riot defendants afterward, has suggested that those who assaulted police officers were caught in a “staged” government operation covered up with Republican help. Grassley has questioned Martin’s praise for a pardoned Jan. 6 riot defendant who made antisemitic, racist and sexist comments.

Democrats allege that Martin has violated the law and legal ethics as the head of the nation’s largest and one of its most powerful U.S. attorney’s offices, accusing him of ignoring legal advice in order to pursue political targets, firing and demoting government workers who investigated Trump and his allies, and improperly “weaponizing” his office to chill or punish perceived adversaries.

Other committee Republicans have declined to voice support for Martin.

“I’m just starting to read about him,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy (Louisiana) said last week. Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (South Dakota) have also been noncommittal.

But Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) told reporters Tuesday, “When he comes up for a vote, I intend to support him,” adding, “I tend to defer to the president on his choices.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), whom Martin said should face a primary challenger for voting to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, said last week that she is not on the Judiciary Committee, but “if his nomination seems to be moving forward, and it was clear that I was going to be in a position where I would have to vote on the floor, I’d have a meeting” with him. She said she “strongly” disagreed with the pardons for rioters, and she noted Martin’s “very active” engagement in the 2020 election denial effort.

Tillis said Tuesday that he has spoken with Martin and that “most of the friction” was over the senator’s view that anyone who entered the Capitol during the riot deserved at least some jail time for making “the stupid decision to come through a building that had been breached, and [where] the police officers and others were saying, ‘stay away.’” But Martin also agreed that hundreds of rioters should not have been pardoned by Trump, Tillis said.

On Tuesday, Martin gave no sign of slowing down, writing on X: “Great to be with Chief Manger at Cap Police hq. Lots to do! #DefendTheBlue,” alongside a picture of himself and Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, who is retiring this month after steering the agency’s recovery from the riot.