Judiciary Panel Again Delays Hearing Vote for D.C. US Attorney

The Senate Judiciary Committee again put off a vote on whether it should hold a hearing to consider the nomination of former “Stop the Steal” organizer Ed Martin to be D.C. US attorney, while members continue to review information about the nominee.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said at a committee meeting Thursday he is going to wait to put Martin on the committee’s agenda to give members and staff time to review the nominee’s responses to hundreds of questions from senators and to meet him personally.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said at the meeting that because of this agreement, he wouldn’t call a vote that day on whether to take the unusual step of having a hearing on Martin, as he initially planned.

Grassley is still receiving background materials on Martin’s nomination and can’t procedurally list a nominee on the agenda while that review is underway, a source familiar with the process said.

Durbin said in an interview a potential hearing vote is still on the table, but that he sees “a good faith effort to look closely at his responses.”

When members on both sides of the aisle review Martin’s responses, “I think they’ll come to the same conclusion I’ve come to: he is not qualified for this position,” Durbin said.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a Judiciary Committee member, who told other news outlets Wednesday that he was “concerned” about Martin’s nomination, was more measured in his comments after the committee meeting.

Tillis said Thursday he planned to meet with Martin next week as he does with all nominees before the committee, and will go through Martin’s latest responses “methodically.” He said Martin’s positions on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot “are really the only thing that I had focused on”

Asked if he was concerned about Martin’s Capitol riot views, Tillis said he is “just taking all of it in.”

“I don’t have concerns until I get an answer to my question. Now, I’ve got things that I need answers to,” he said. “So, the concerns will depend on the answer to the question.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), another panel member, said, “I’m going to take my time” on Martin’s nomination.

Martin, a Missouri lawyer who hasn’t worked as a prosecutor before, has emerged as a controversial candidate to lead the nation’s largest US attorney’s office. Congressional Democrats and former prosecutors have questioned his fitness for the role and raised concerns that he’s approached his current role as interim leader of the office with a partisan lens.

Martin has also drawn scrutiny for his ties to far-right activists, limited experience in criminal law, and statements that lawyers in his office are President Donald Trump’s attorneys. Committee members sent Martin hundreds of questions to answer in writing, including about his past praise for Nazi sympathizer and Capitol rioter Timothy Hale-Cusanelli.

In his responses, which the committee received last week, Martin denounced Hale-Cusanelli’s past statements as “abhorrent, deplorable, and unacceptable in any context.” Martin also dodged a number of senators’ questions confronting him with past comments he made about various members of Congress and Jan. 6 rioters, including that the rioters are “patriots.”

Durbin said Thursday that Martin’s latest responses show he’s made “false” and “contradictory” statements to the committee. He also knocked Martin for failing to disclose 400 past public appearances in his original questionnaire, which he said is “virtually unprecedented in the history of the committee that I’ve served on now for over 20 years.”

Senate Republicans have less than a month to act on Martin’s nomination. His term as acting D.C. US attorney expires on May 20, at which point the Washington federal trial court may appoint a replacement.