Escalation: Ed Martin Leaves DOJ for Election Legal Work
President Trump posted on Truth Social on August 21, 2026 that Ed Martin will leave the Justice Department to “fight Legal Battles for the upcoming Midterm Election, and the Presidential Election of 2028.” Martin replied on X, posting, “Proud to serve. Fight Fight Fight.”
Martin is serving as the U.S. Pardon Attorney and will move to outside legal work tied to the 2026 midterms and the 2028 race. He previously served as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and led the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group; during his interim tenure he fired or demoted more than a dozen probationary prosecutors and ordered an internal inquiry into how some Jan. 6 defendants were charged.
Martin’s tenure drew repeated controversy and ethics scrutiny. He was charged in March with ethics violations over an allegedly threatening letter to Georgetown Law’s dean, and his public actions, including posting photos outside New York Attorney General Letitia James’s brownstone and announcing investigation targets on social media, angered senior DOJ officials and helped prompt his removal from oversight of the Weaponization group.
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AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources
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