Durbin Calls for Hearing on Trump’s Top D.C. Prosecutor Pick (1)

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat has joined calls to hold a hearing on Donald Trump’s pick for Washington’s top prosecutor, raising allegations about the nominee’s affiliations with political extremists.

In a Wednesday letter, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called on Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to schedule hearing for Ed Martin, a former Missouri Republican Party chair and “Stop the Steal” organizer tapped to lead the US attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, to answer questions under oath. Martin is currently leading the office in an acting capacity.

The letter, also signed by other Judiciary Democrats, raised concerns about Martin’s past advocacy of participants in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot and firings of prosecutors in the DC US attorney’s office who worked on those cases. Durbin also pointed to Martin’s affiliation with Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a Jan. 6 rioter with a history of making antisemitic and racist comments.

Martin presented Hale-Cusanelli with an award last year at the Trump Bedminster Club in New Jersey and called him “an extraordinary man, an extraordinary leader,” according to the letter.

“Mr. Martin is a nominee whose objectionable record merits heightened scrutiny by this Committee,” the Democrats wrote.

Durbin said in an interview ahead of the letter’s release that this is “not a routine nomination,” and to hold a hearing on it “would be unusual, but not, I think, a radical idea.”

“Martin’s position, and his political involvement, has been in the extreme. He has consorted with individuals who are extreme in their political views, and antisemitic,” Durbin said. “I think the Republicans ought to think twice before they let a man with that background have so much power.”

Durbin said he hasn’t heard back from Grassley.

A spokesperson for Grassley said on Tuesday that the Judiciary Committee doesn’t hold hearings on US attorney nominations. The panel “will thoroughly review Ed Martin’s background and qualifications, including questions for the record, as part of its standard nominations process,” the spokesperson said.

Grassley said in a brief interview Wednesday he thinks the committee “will be able to move forward” with Martin’s nomination.

Durbin made his remarks one day after Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a Judiciary Committee member, announced he would put a hold on Martin’s nomination, requiring Republicans to go through a slower process for nominations, and “block attempts to jam through his appointment at every stage.”

Democratic Concerns

Martin has been criticized by congressional Democrats since Trump announced plans in February to nominate him to lead the office formally.

Martin, who has no prosecutorial experience, previously represented participants in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol. And since taking office, he’s overseen the firings of more than a dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors and demotions of career supervisors.

Denise Cheung, the office’s former criminal division chief, announced her resignation in February after she said Martin pressured her to use stronger language in a request that assets be frozen in a case involving a Biden-era government contract, where she believed there wasn’t enough evidence.

Schiff said in an interview Wednesday he plans to oppose Martin’s nomination at all stages to “raise just how disastrous a nominee he has been” while leading the office in an acting capacity.

He highlighted Martin’s “flagrant conflicts of interest,” including an incident where Martin, as acting D.C. US attorney, dismissed a case against a Capitol rioter who he was still technically personally representing.

“The catalog of horrors is long. He’s the last person that we should be considering for any position of responsibility,” Schiff said.

Durbin’s support for a hearing comes after a group of roughly 100 former prosecutors who worked at the office over the past 50 years sent a statement of opposition in March to the Judiciary Committee regarding Martin’s nomination. The former assistant US attorneys called for a public hearing on Martin’s nomination.