President Donald Trump was forced to withdraw his nomination of far-right activist Ed Martin as permanent U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Trump had to abandon Martin when it became clear that bipartisan opposition to his confirmation was growing in the Senate.
We’re proud that People For the American Way played a major role in organizing a broad coalition effort, educating senators about Martin’s extremism, and mobilizing public pressure against his confirmation.
Martin had been serving destructively in the U.S. Attorney role since Trump gave him the position on an interim basis in January. Martin purged prosecutors involved in holding Jan. 6 insurrectionists accountable, ran interference for Elon Musk’s DOGE rampage through federal agencies, threatened a law firm, and tried to bully Georgetown Law School into dropping diversity and inclusion from its curriculum. He sought to interfere with editorial decisions made by Wikipedia and scientific journals.
Keeping Martin in place would have been a disaster. Blocking his confirmation is a major victory for the rule of law in the face of Trump’s ongoing corruption of the Justice Department.
Here are some of the ways People For made this victory possible:
- Our Right Wing Watch project, which has covered Martin’s role as a far-right activist for years, reported relentlessly on Martin’s extremism and legally and ethically dubious actions. Here are some highlights:
- Who is Ed Martin, the MAGA US Attorney Running Interference for Elon Musk? | People For
- Interim US Attorney Ed Martin Swore an Oath to the Constitution, But Acts Like His Highest Loyalty is to Trump | People For
- Senate Judiciary Committee Examines US Attorney Nominee Ed Martin's Extremism and Actions | People For
- It’s Hard to Keep Up With Ed Martin’s Abuses of Power; Americans Deserve a Confirmation Hearing | People For
- People For’s legal and public policy staff provided Senate staffers with intelligence from Right Wing Watch researchers—including Martin’s continuing to publish his right-wing newsletter after taking the job—along with analysis and suggested questions for Martin. We passed along information about controversies he was involved in while serving in government in Missouri.
- People For mobilized and strategized with allies to identify and deploy the most effective opposition strategy. We publicly backed Judiciary Committee Democrats’ call for a public hearing on Martin’s nomination. U.S. Attorneys don’t usually face confirmation hearings, but we helped Democrats make the case that Martin’s record was so egregiously bad that an exception needed to be made.
- More than 11,000 People For the American Way members signed petitions demanding that the Senate reject his nomination; dozens of members went further, calling their senators’ offices to demand that they stop Martin. About a third of our petitions went to Republican offices, including hundreds to Judiciary Committee member Sen. Tom Tillis, who finally scuttled Martin’s confirmation with his public opposition.
- As Republican support for Martin began faltering, we intensified our efforts to keep the pressure on.
- Martin’s defeat was also a great proof-of-concept for People For the American Way’s new social media strategy. Our Project Echo team was able to reach hundreds of thousands of Americans, amplifying our research, highlighting crucial news stories, and drawing attention to growing concerns about Martin’s actions.
The Trump administration is waging an unprecedented assault on the Constitution and rule of law. They are aggressively dismantling democratic institutions and agencies that protect Americans’ health and well-being. They are sacrificing the interests of American families and communities on the altar of MAGA ideology and tax cuts for billionaires. The scope of corruption is simply mind-blowing.
We will not win every battle we wage against Trump and his MAGA Republican machine. But we will lose every battle we do not fight. And, as we proved with the defeat of Ed Martin, when we work together, we can make a difference for the American people.
Trump has named the woefully unqualified Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to replace Martin as interim U.S. attorney, and given Martin a powerful job in the Justice Department as director of the “Weaponization Working Group,” associate deputy attorney general and pardon attorney. We’ll continue our vigilant oversight of the damage they both do in these positions.
Our work in these dangerous times is urgently needed. Thank you for making it possible.
