Washington Post By Spencer S. Hsu and Tom Jackman
Ed Martin has fired Jan. 6 prosecutors, launched investigations of Capitol riot prosecutions and threatened the nation’s top elected Democrat with an inquiry.
Interim D.C. U.S. attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., on Friday dismissed about 30 federal prosecutors who have worked on Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot cases over the past four years, undertaking a housecleaning of the top prosecutor’s office in Washington, while preparing to extend the office’s scrutiny to top Democratic leaders and former Justice Department officials, people close to Martin said.
The prosecutors were on probationary status after being converted to full-time from shorter-term positions after Election Day under circumstances the Trump administration is investigating, according to documents from Martin and acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove that were emailed around 5 p.m. and viewed by The Washington Post.
In his first 11 days in office, Martin, 54, has moved quickly to align the office with President Donald Trump’s political views — and drawn significant criticism in the process. Since being appointed on Jan. 20, Martin has ordered top supervisors in the office to investigate their colleagues’ handling of the Capitol riot prosecutions in the wake of Trump’s mass pardons and threatened subordinates who disclose or criticize his actions.
And he appeared to set his sights on scrutinizing the nation’s top elected Democrat, sending what he called a “letter of inquiry” to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) about his quickly walked-back statement in a March 2020 rally that two of Trump’s recently nominated Supreme Court justices, Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh, would “pay the price” for a vote against abortion rights.
More:
https://archive.is/93qlu#selection-629.0-713.8
