Donald Trump
’s pick for U.S.
Attorney
For the District of Columbia, appearances on Russian state media have been recorded over 150 times, as stated in a recent report.
Ed Martin, who served as the acting U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., was featured as a guest commentator on channels owned by the Russian government between August 2016 and April 2024, appearing on RT and Sputnik.
The Washington Post
reports.
Martin helped organize the
The “Stop the Steal” campaign advocated for the unfounded claim that the 2020 election was manipulated.
Trump.
He has likewise committed to taking legal action against anybody obstructing him.
Elon Musk’s DOGE work
, and garnered attention last month for his
history of inflammatory remarks.
Initially, he didn’t reveal his involvement in appearing on Russian television when Trump appointed him to his new role.
After dozens of people were killed in a chemical attack in Syria in April 2017, Martin appeared on RT America to claim that it was possible the incident was “engineered” in Washington “by the people that want war in Syria.”
The Trump White House
denounced
the attack, blamed the Syrian government, and ordered a missile strike. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
said
when the United States “invented the entire narrative to create an excuse” for launching missiles.
More recently, in early 2022, Martin reportedly said in another appearance that “there’s no evidence” of a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s borders. Russia launched a war against Ukraine about a week later.
In March of that same year, he proposed that an opportunity for collaboration between the U.S. and Russia had been overlooked during Trump’s initial term in office.
“We needed to be allies with nuclear powers like Russia,” he said on Sputnik, the
Post
It was reported that “Trump understood that you wanted to align yourself with the most formidable figures on the streets. He was prepared to form alliances with North Korea, Putin, and everyone else.”
Martin did not report these instances in his records.
Senate Judiciary Committee
The questionnaire, which inquiries focus on media engagements, was mentioned by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, who serves as the ranking member of the committee, in a statement released Wednesday.
“The 150 undisclosed appearances Mr. Martin has made on Russian state media as recently as April of last year —as Russia was actively bombing Ukraine — raises further serious questions about whether he has the temperament to serve as U.S. Attorney, concerns that have been underlined by his misconduct as Interim U.S. Attorney,” Durbin said. The senator said the
Post
report underscored the need for Martin to testify under oath about his relationship with Russia.
A spokesperson for Martin told the
Post
on Tuesday that he “has disclosed all of the identified links in a supplemental letter to the Senate” in the past two days.
When asked about Martin’s guest spots on Russian state media, the White House defended Trump’s nomination.
“President Trump made a brilliant choice in selecting Ed Martin to serve a full, permanent term as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. With a distinguished record of service, Ed is the perfect leader to restore law and order and make our Nation’s Capital safe and beautiful once again,” a spokesperson told the newspaper.
The Illinois senator, along with other Democrats,
Last month asked the D.C. bar to initiate a disciplinary investigation into Martin.
citing his dismissal of charges against his own client, a January 6 defendant, and his use of the “threat of prosecution to intimidate government employees and chill the speech of private citizens.”
This week, a team of ex-prosecutors from the January 6 case also
asked
The D.C. bar was asked to look into Martin’s actions, stating he has “shown during his short tenure a profound misapprehension of the duties of a federal prosecutor. He has initiated probes against political rivals, assisted clients from his past, and engaged in inappropriate communications with others.”
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