Trump yanks Ed Martin's U.S. Attorney pick after backlash to Jan. 6 comments
President Trump said Thursday he will pull the nomination of U.S. Attorney for D.C. Ed Martin, whose leniency toward Jan. 6 Capitol rioters lost him key Republican support in the Senate.
Why it matters: It's a rare setback for Trump, losing a MAGA true believer who relished national culture war battles and pushed a "Make D.C. Safe Again" initiative.
"He wasn't getting the support," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I'm very disappointed in that. ... Hopefully we can bring him into, whether it's DOJ or whatever, in some capacity."
The final blow came from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Tuesday: "I have no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on Jan. 6," he told reporters on Tuesday.
A fire breathing conservative podcaster, Martin was already on thin ice with the Senate Judiciary Committee for failing to originally disclose appearances on Russian state media.
The big picture: Martin served as Trump's attack dog during a controversial interim appointment, demoting prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases, pursuing critics of Elon Musk's DOGE, and threatening Wikipedia over what he called biased "propaganda."
The U.S. Attorney for D.C. is a big office that prosecutes both white collar and national security investigations in D.C. — and street-level violent crime locally.
Trump said he would announce a replacement "over the next two days that will be great."
Between the lines: MAGA influencers like Charlie Kirk had unloaded on Tillis for his opposition, but their efforts to save Martin's nomination fell short.
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