Trump US attorney nominee distances himself from antisemitic Jan. 6 rioter he once praised
"I'm sorry," Ed Martin said in an interview with the Jewish publication Forward. "I denounce everything about what that guy said, everything about the way he talked, and all as I've now seen it ... At the time, I didn't know it.'
Martin's comments come as his nomination faces headwinds in the Senate over his public praise for Jan. 6 rioter Timothy Hale-Cussanelli at a 2024 event at Trump's Bedminster club in 2024.
MORE: Interim US attorney for DC likens Jan. 6 cases to Japanese internment
At the event, one of several fundraisers held at Trump's private clubs to benefit Jan. 6 rioters, Martin described Hale-Cussanelli as an "extraordinary man" and "extraordinary leader."
It's unclear how Martin, vying to be the top prosecutor in one of the nation's most important U.S. attorney's offices, could claim to be unaware of Hale-Cussanelli's past anti-Semitic statements and praise for Hitler -- much less as late as 2024.
A Google search of Hale-Cussanelli's name turns up the series of now-infamous selfies that surfaced following his arrest that show him donning a Hitler mustache and holding his hand over his chest.
Hale-Cusanelli's antisemitic views made him one of the more prominently covered Jan. 6 defendants. At his sentencing hearing, the Trump-appointed judge overseeing his case, Trevor McFadden, said, "Statements and actions like yours make [Jewish people] less safe and less confident they can participate as equal members of our society.''
Prosecutors further surfaced antisemitic statements he made to his coworkers at a naval weapons station that 'Hitler should have finished the job' and 'babies born with any deformities or disabilities should be shot in the forehead.'
Martin was also previously asked about Hale-Cussanelli's antisemitic views in a recently posted interview with the Washington Informer, and didn't denounce him directly.
"When someone says, 'Hey, do you understand that of the January 6 defendants, there were some really rotten actors, and there were people that said terrible things in their lives, or even did terrible things?' then, fair enough," Martin said in that interview. "But I feel pretty good about the fact that we try to make ourselves better every day, and we try to get people give people a break, going forward, and I've got a pretty long career of fighting, I think for the right causes."
Trump US attorney nominee distances himself from antisemitic Jan. 6 rioter he once praised originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
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