“Eagle” Ed Martin, the Trump loyalist that even this Republican Senate discovered too incompetent to confirm when he sought to move the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in D.C., has managed to discover a new method to affirm that skepticism. Earlier this week, we heard that the DOJ relieved Ed of his duties because the driving drive behing the DOJ’s anti-weaponization initiative — the satirically named group working to actively weaponize the DOJ against Trump’s political enemies. Each accusation actually is a confession, as they are saying.
Now we might know why Eagle Ed had his wings clipped.
In line with CNN, a DOJ evaluate discovered Martin leaked grand jury materials from the Trump administration’s politically motivated investigations into Adam Schiff and Letitia James:
The division discovered that Martin had shared the key grand jury materials within the Schiff case, one of many sources mentioned. The individual mentioned Martin initially denied sharing the fabric with unauthorized folks when requested by division leaders, however emails quickly surfaced exhibiting that Martin had in actual fact shared the grand jury materials.
Usually, we preserve grand jury materials secret for a cause. It protects investigative integrity and the rights of the accused. When prosecutors leak that materials, it’s at the least contemptuous and at worst obstruction of justice. That’s a kind of precise crimes, not the made-up “anyone criticized Elon Musk” crimes Martin threatened people with throughout his tenure as interim D.C. U.S. Legal professional.
Deputy AG Todd Blanche reportedly oversaw the evaluate, leading to Martin’s exile from the weaponization mission to focus on his position overseeing pardons for a president almost assuredly selling pardons. However Blanche isn’t going to promote out a fellow MAGA warrior. In his assertion to CNN, Blanche gives a masterclass in lawyerly semantics:
[T]right here are not any misconduct investigations into Ed Martin. Ed is doing an awesome job as Pardon Legal professional.
The current tense does some conspicuous heavy lifting right here. No misconduct investigations at the moment, however don’t ask Blanche the follow-up about investigations they’ve already concluded. Ed could also be doing an awesome job as Pardon Legal professional — he’s not, however he might have been — however how’s he doing as Weaponization Working Group chief, Todd?
Fittingly, the entire cause this investigation got here to gentle was additionally fairly dumb. Again in December, a witness named Christine Bish confirmed up at a Maryland courthouse after receiving a subpoena. Investigators requested her about two individuals who claimed to be engaged on fraud circumstances alongside Martin and FHFA Director Invoice Pulte that the DOJ was investigating these people for impersonating federal brokers. Stunning principle that the FBI wouldn’t have the identical urge for food for wild goose chases as a few bros informally deputized to poke into the half-baked theories Martin and Pulte preserve pinning on Trump’s enemies.
Days later, a social media consumer highlighted that ongoing probe and referenced Pulte and Martin being below investigation. Legal professional Common Pam Bondi responded by seemingly attempting to appropriate the report, with out elaborating. “There isn’t any investigation into Invoice Pulte” she wrote on X.
Hilarious.
For these preserving rating at residence, this is similar Ed Martin who: dismissed a case against his own former client, threatened Wikipedia, and harassed people without any criminal law justification just because he thought they sounded woke. He additionally posted photos he took with Russell Brand… not Forgetting Sarah Marshall-era Model, however at the moment dealing with sexual assault costs Model.
When he took over the weaponization group, he mentioned of the work, “If they are often charged, we’ll cost them. But when they’ll’t be charged, we are going to identify them. And we are going to identify them, and in a tradition that respects disgrace, they need to be folks which are ashamed.”
It appears this DOJ has little curiosity in pursuing costs right here. So I suppose we’ll must depend on the shaming. And, hopefully, an ethics probe.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Regulation and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Be happy to email any ideas, questions, or feedback. Observe him on Twitter or Bluesky should you’re enthusiastic about regulation, politics, and a wholesome dose of faculty sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
