Nearly 100 former employees and prosecutors from the United States Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., have signed a memo opposing President Trump’s nominee to lead the office.
The memo is the latest attempt by critics of acting D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin to block his Senate confirmation for the permanent position, which is one of the most powerful federal prosecutor positions in the country.
The letter was signed by former prosecutors who worked in the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office for seven decades, under administrations ranging from Lyndon B. Johnson to Joe Biden.
A copy of the memo was shared with CBS News, and it called for Martin’s nomination to be rejected.
“There is a time when we all are called to stand for the full and fair administration of justice and the rule of law,” according to the letter. “For those of us who have served in the Office of the United States Attorney and still have a breath, the time is now.
And the message we are sending is to reject the proposed nominee outright and completely. Whether our message is futile or not, it is an expression of our conscience and a matter of principle, which we deliver with all of our might.”
Martin began serving as interim US attorney for D.C. hours after President Trump’s inauguration and was quickly nominated for the Senate-confirmed position.
His nomination has been a source of contention since the start of the Trump administration. Martin has no prosecutorial experience, but he was an advocate for the “Stop the Steal” movement, which sought to overturn the 2020 election results.
He also worked as a defense lawyer on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot cases and fired some of the lawyers who prosecuted the defendants.
Senate Democrats have slammed Martin’s appointment, with Sen. Adam Schiff, a first-term California Democrat, calling him unqualified and dangerous for the position of United States attorney. Schiff has placed a hold on Martin’s nomination in an attempt to slow the confirmation process.
Schiff and other Senate Democrats have also requested a confirmation hearing for Martin’s nomination, which, if approved, would be the first for a US attorney nominee in 40 years.
Some of the nearly 100 former assistant U.S. attorneys lobbying against Martin’s nomination told CBS News that they understand they need to make inroads with Senate Republicans on the Judiciary Committee.
Dan Toomey, who served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office from 1968 to 1971 told CBS News the group of former prosecutors has yet to secure a meeting with Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
“We have talked to Sen. Grassley’s staff and we have also talked to Senator John Kennedy’s staff,” Toomey said in response. We met with them for half an hour.
Toomey acknowledged that Republican senators are likely the only barrier to Martin’s confirmation, and that gaining the support of some of those senators is “really important and really our only hope.”
Charles Work, a former federal prosecutor who worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in the 1970s and signed the memo opposing Martin, claims the office is struggling under Martin’s interim leadership.
“The morale is gone,” Work stated. “People are hiding from assignments. They don’t know what to do. They don’t know whether to resign.”
In their newly released memo, the former prosecutors argued that “(Martin’s) refusals to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election and the illegality in the conduct of 1600 individuals who overran the police and the Capitol on January 6, 2021, causing physical harm to dozens and potentially irreparable damage to the institution of democratic governance, are in and of themselves disqualifying.” Furthermore, these misbehaviors serve as indicators of where the nominee will go if appointed United States Attorney.”
When asked Monday if he had any concerns about Martin’s nomination, Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who would vote on it in the Judiciary Committee, did not respond directly. Cornyn stated, “His nomination is still pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee, so we’ll be dealing with that soon, I imagine. But for the time being, he’s only acting, and we’ll take up his nomination soon.”