Republican Senators who hold up a troubling nominee might attract President Trump’s short-term anger, but they’re doing him a long-term favor. So it is with Sen. Thom Tillis’s opposition to Ed Martin, nominated for U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia. Mr. Martin has been doing that job on an interim basis since January, but his temporary 120-day lease expires soon.
Mr. Tillis, who is up for re-election next year in North Carolina, said Tuesday he has told the White House he won’t support confirmation to let Mr. Martin keep the D.C. prosecutor’s office. Speaking to the press, Mr. Tillis cited disagreement with Mr. Martin’s views on the 2021 Capitol riot. “I have no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on Jan. 6,” he said, adding that such people “made a stupid decision, and they disgraced the United States.”
The day before the riot, Mr. Martin spoke at a rally in D.C., leading chants of “stop the steal!” He later said Jan. 6 defendants were prosecuted in “communist show trials” and sent to a “D.C. gulag.” Mr. Martin has appeared more than 150 times on the Russian propaganda networks RT and Sputnik, including a 2021 segment discussing whether the U.S. was sliding into authoritarianism.
Mr. Martin’s recent tenure as a federal prosecutor hasn’t built confidence. He sent bullying letters to two Democrats in Congress, insinuating that overheated rhetoric might constitute illegal threats of violence. One was Sen. Chuck Schumer, who was justly criticized in 2020 for saying in a speech that conservative Supreme Court Justices “have released the whirlwind” and “will pay the price.” Mr. Schumer admitted that remark was a mistake.
Five years later, Mr. Martin is on the case. “Any reasonable person would hear your words as threatening, even inciting violence,” he told Mr. Schumer in a February letter. In a follow-up, he warned that he required a response from Mr. Schumer “to complete this inquiry before any action is taken.” Mr. Trump pledged to end the weaponization of the Justice Department. What was Mr. Martin doing by all but threatening to prosecute the Senate Minority Leader over a speech a half-decade ago?
Or read the demand letters that Mr. Martin sent to medical journals last month. “Do you accept articles or essays from competing viewpoints?” That was one of his inquiries to the official journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is split 12-10, so a no from Mr. Tillis looks like enough to block Mr. Martin’s nomination from being reported favorably to the floor. When an interim appointment to U.S. Attorney expires after 120 days, the law says the district court in question may temporarily fill the vacancy. The best outcome would be for Mr. Trump to withdraw Mr. Martin and pick someone who can earn the Senate’s confidence.
— The Wall Street Journal
Editor’s note: On Thursday morning, President Trump pulled Martin’s nomination.
