Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Edward R. Martin Jr. requesting documents and information to investigate whether Mr. Martin is abusing his office by threatening to sic federal law enforcement on media and others he views as insufficiently loyal to President Donald Trump. The Ranking Member also seeks to determine if Mr. Martin’s office is jeopardizing the rule of law by not effectively and evenhandedly protecting federal employees and officials, and complying with the U.S. Constitution, DOJ policies, and other applicable laws, regulations, and rules.
The letter follows a previous statement from Ranking Member Connolly denouncing concerning public communications made by Mr. Martin in his official capacity in which he asserts that certain critics of the Trump Administration or policies that it favors—including two Democratic Members of Congress—have violated the law and/or are subject to “inquiry” or other investigative activity by his office.
“The safety of federal employees and officials is self-evidently paramount and emphatically must remain an ironclad priority for the Department of Justice. Your recent public statements, however—which are directed exclusively at opponents of and express support for the Trump Administration, explicitly criticize the Biden Administration, publicize pending investigative activity by your office, and make assertions of fact for which there exists no evidence—raise serious concerns that your new initiative is a pretext for misusing your office for political ends, threatening and intimidating critics of the Administration, and chilling constitutionally protected speech,” wrote the Ranking Member.
According to legal experts, Mr. Martin’s “actions would be more credible but for his own actions in the three weeks since taking office and [President] Trump’s long pattern of sowing falsehood-laden attacks and encouraging violence against political critics.”
Ranking Member Connolly also highlighted Mr. Martin’s silence on Elon Musk’s pattern of targeting federal workers by name on X and weaponizing his followers against ordinary federal employees:
“It thus appears that your stated commitment to protect federal employees and officials extends only to President Trump and his allies. As discussed below, your politically selective approach to law enforcement violates DOJ policies, breaches your ethical obligations, and constitutes a misuse of your office—and most alarmingly, as a leading expert on legal ethics has observed, is ‘undermining the prosecutorial independence of the Justice Department.”
The letter shares a timeline of Mr. Martin’s concerning behavior:
-
On February 3, 2025, Mr. Martin posted a letter on his X account, on official letterhead, to Elon Musk. The letter stated: “It was good to work with the DOGE team this weekend . . . At this time, I ask that you utilize me and my staff to assist in protecting the DOGE work and the DOGE workers . . . Let me assure you of this: we will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people. We will not act like the previous administration who looked the other way as the Antifa and BLM rioters as well as thugs with guns trashed our capital [sic] city.”
- On that same day, Mr. Martin violated DOJ policy by posting a statement on X asserting his office’s “initial review of the evidence presented to us indicates that certain individuals and/or groups have committed acts that appear to violate the law in targeting DOGE employees.” He further stated, “We are in contact with the FBI and other law-enforcement partners to proceed rapidly. We also have our prosecutors preparing.”
- On February 19, 2025, Mr. Martin issued an office-wide email announcing an investigation into what he described as a potential attack on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the formation of “Operation Whirlwind.” The email further stated, “Our office has been flooded with threats against those who helped free the January 6th prisoners . . . . We must protect our cops, our prosecutors, our DOGE workers, the President, and all other government employees from threats against our nation.”
|
The Ranking Member asked for compliance with requests for information no later than March 11, 2025.
Click here to read the letter to Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Edward R. Martin Jr.
