Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are asking the District of Columbia’s bar association to investigate Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in the capital, saying that he had “abused” prosecutorial power to threaten his political opponents.
In a letter to the bar association on Thursday, the senators, led by Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the committee’s top Democrat, also accused Mr. Martin of violating professional standards by refusing to recuse himself from a case involving a Capitol rioter he privately represented and dismissing charges against the man.
Mr. Martin, a Missouri Republican who has used social media to threaten critics of President Trump and Elon Musk, has upended one of the most important U.S. attorney’s offices in the country. He has purged nonpolitical career staff involved in the investigations of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and at times directly interceded in prosecutorial decision-making.
“Mr. Martin has abused his position in several ways,” Mr. Durbin wrote, referring his complaint to the bar association’s office of disciplinary counsel, the body that recommended the disbarment of Rudolph W. Giuliani over false claims he made in lawsuits after the 2020 election.
“Mr. Martin’s conduct not only speaks to his fitness as a lawyer,” added Mr. Durbin, who signed the letter with nine other Democrats, but “his activities are part of a broader course of conduct by President Trump and his allies to undermine the traditional independence of Department of Justice investigations and prosecutions and the rule of law.”
A spokesman for Mr. Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Trump has nominated Mr. Martin, who also promoted his false claims about the 2020 election, to be the permanent U.S. attorney in Washington. But Mr. Martin’s targeting of opponents, while in sync with the president’s demands for retribution, has alienated some Senate Republicans and could complicate his chances of confirmation. A date for his confirmation hearings has not been set.
Democrats cited several examples of Mr. Martin’s conduct that they said violated professional standards, including his decision to dismiss charges against Joseph Padilla, a former client of Mr. Martin’s who had already been convicted. In the letter, Democrats said Mr. Martin was officially listed as Mr. Padilla’s lawyer at the time he was moving to dismiss the charges against him.
They also referred to a similar instance, in which Mr. Martin recused himself from a case involving a member of the Proud Boys weeks after he had been sworn in as the interim U.S. attorney.
In the letter, the senators claimed that those steps violated bar rules in Washington intended to prevent federal prosecutors from taking action that could benefit or harm clients they once represented.
They also cited Mr. Martin’s bombastic posts on social media. Some were threats against the law firm representing Jack Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Mr. Trump. Others involved Mr. Martin’s creation of Operation Whirlwind, an internal investigation into Democrats who made statements that Mr. Trump’s allies claim were intended to incite violence.
Mr. Martin is “using the threat of prosecution to intimidate government employees and chill the speech of private citizens,” the Democrats wrote.
Mr. Martin quietly pushed in recent days to present evidence against Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, to a federal grand jury over comments he made in 2020 about Supreme Court justices, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Mr. Schumer apologized for the statement, saying it was overheated rhetoric and not a call for violence.
Justice Department officials rebuffed Mr. Martin’s unusual request, and the five-year period during which Mr. Schumer might have been prosecuted lapsed on Tuesday.
Late last month, Mr. Martin demoted several top prosecutors involved in Capitol riot prosecutions to low-level positions handling minor crimes. Earlier this week, more than 50 former prosecutors who worked in the U.S. attorney’s office drafted an open letter calling for the Senate to reject Mr. Martin’s nomination, saying he was “unworthy” of the position.
Mr. Martin threatened the dean of Georgetown University’s law school this week with an investigation if it did not immediately scrap all diversity and inclusion initiatives, according to a person familiar with the matter. The letter was reported earlier by Post Millennial, a conservative website.
Chief among Mr. Martin’s defenders is the president, who had demanded that his appointees in the Justice Department exact vengeance against anyone directly involved in the prosecutions of him or his allies.
“Since Inauguration Day, Ed has been doing a great job as Interim U.S. Attorney, fighting tirelessly to restore Law and Order, and make our Nation’s Capital Safe and Beautiful Again,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media last month in announcing his intention to nominate Mr. Martin for the permanent job. “He will get the job done.”