WASHINGTON — Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he wouldn't support Ed Martin, President Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., most likely blocking the path to confirmation for the “Stop the Steal” organizer who had closely aligned himself with Jan. 6 defendants.
“I’ve indicated to the White House I wouldn’t support his nomination,” Tillis said Tuesday after meeting with Martin on Monday night.
Tillis is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is overseeing Martin's nomination. The panel has 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats, meaning if all other members aside from Tillis voted along party lines, the vote on Martin would end in a tie and his nomination would not be reported favorably to the full Senate.
Trump's nomination of Martin, a longtime right-wing activist who had no prosecutorial experience until Trump named him as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia on the day of his inauguration, has raised major concerns with alumni of the office, which prosecutors both federal and local crimes in Washington.
Tillis said his concerns about Martin’s involvement in the defense of people who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were too much to overcome, but said that Martin agreed with him that there were hundreds of individuals who shouldn't have been included in Trump's mass pardons.
“Mr. Martin did a good job of explaining the one area that I think he’s probably right, that 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," Tillis said. "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, but not in this district.”
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee said they’re unsure whether Martin would receive a full Senate vote if his nomination fails in committee.
“I’ll have to double-check what the procedure is on that. I think it can be discharged, but I think it requires a majority vote of the Senate,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who supports Martin.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, indicated the nomination is in doubt when he was asked whether Martin can still pass through the committee. “I don’t know,” he said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, said the fate of the nomination probably hinges on Trump now.
“The president, how important is this to him? Does he urge Sen. Tillis to reconsider? I don’t know. I don’t have a sense for that yet,” Hawley said. “I mean, I think it’s pretty important to him. But I think it will really depend on what he wants to do."
White House spokesman Alex Pfeiffer said Tuesday that 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" and was "the right man for the job and we look forward to his confirmation."
As interim U.S. attorney, Martin opened up an investigation into the D.C. office's handling of Jan. 6 cases, and several federal prosecutors who worked on Capitol attack cases were fired during his tenure, while Martin demoted others. Martin's term as interim U.S. attorney is set to expire on May 20.
In a speech at the Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, Martin called on “die-hard true Americans” to work until their “last breath” to “stop the steal.” Martin's association with a far-right Jan. 6 rioter who had posed in a Adolph Hitler mustache and who the Justice Department had called “an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer" also raised concerns during his nomination process, and Martin sought to distance himself from the defendant.
Asked why the committee hadn't moved forward with Martin's nomination, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, said, "I want to put people on the agenda that I can help the president be successful in his nominees, and that’s all I can say at this point."
Trump has pushed senators to support Martin as recently as Monday night, writing on Truth Social that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his health and human services secretary, believed Martin's confirmation was "IMPERATIVE in terms of doing all that has to be done to SAVE LIVES and to, MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN."
