Trump-appointed prosecutor pursues one of the president's longtime targets
Last summer, during a campaign event in Virginia, Donald Trump singled out 'the Vindman twins' as 'the worst people.' Pointing to Republican congressional candidate Derrick Anderson, Trump added, 'We got to win that race. You got to teach the Vindmans. We got to get them out.'
He was referring, of course, to Eugene and Alexander Vindman, who played critical roles in the 2019 Ukraine scandal that led to the president's first impeachment. Trump invested considerable energy into trying to smear and discredit the decorated military veterans, but those efforts ultimately fell short: Eugene Vindman narrowly won a congressional race last fall, and the Virginia Democrat is now a couple of months into his first term on Capitol Hill.
Now the new congressman has apparently captured the attention of interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin. The Washington Post reported:
Interim D.C. U.S. attorney Ed Martin has sent another letter to a Democratic congressman and critic of President Donald Trump, demanding information in what Democratic lawmakers say is a potential abuse of his prosecutorial power.
In a written statement provided to The Rachel Maddow Show, Vindman said, 'Since he's become President, Trump's been focused on weaponizing government and lying to intimidate and silence public servants like me, and it's not going to work.'
The targets of Trump's 'dangerous and deeply disturbing' effort, Vindman added, are 'people who believe in democracy like my constituents — FBI agents, prosecutors, military officials, federal workers, and intelligence agency leaders who disagree with him.' The Democratic lawmaker added, 'Those who wrote and encouraged this weird attempt at intimidation are lying.'
As best as I can tell, Vindman has not been credibly accused of wrongdoing, but Martin — who sent a letter on Feb. 4 that began, 'Dear Eugene' — said he's 'received requests' for 'clarification' about the Virginian's financial disclosures. The interim U.S. attorney did not elaborate as to who, exactly, had made those 'requests.'
It might be easier to give Martin the benefit of doubt were it not for everything we've learned about the hyper-partisan prosecutor and former 'Stop the Steal' organizer. Indeed, his interest in Vindman dovetails with a lengthy series of similar efforts launched by the Republican lawyer, who has no prosecutorial experience.
Martin's greatest-hits package features misguided fights with the dean of Georgetown University's law school, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California. During his brief tenure, Martin has also:
demoted multiple senior officials involved in Jan. 6 insurrection cases;
falsely described himself as one of the president's lawyers;
weighed in on a civil case involving the White House, which had literally nothing to do with his office;
intervened in a dubious Environmental Protection Agency investigation;
made a dubious decision in the case involving Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida;
launched the wildly unnecessary 'Operation Whirlwind';
also launched the wildly unnecessary 'Project 1512' initiative;
made a creepy public vow to wield his prosecutorial powers against those who get in Elon Musk's way;
engaged in brazen conflict of interest in a Jan. 6 case, in which he effectively took both sides of a criminal case;
and kicked off a radically unnecessary investigation into Jack Smith and a law firm that gave the former special counsel pro bono legal services.
In a piece for New York magazine, Elie Honig recently described the lawyer as Trump's 'dangerous and ridiculous pet prosecutor.' Martin seems to be going out of his way to prove his many critics right.
What's more, The New York Times reported that Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have asked the D.C. Bar's disciplinary counsel to investigate Martin, arguing that the Trump-appointed Republican has 'abused' his prosecutorial powers.
Trump has nevertheless nominated Martin to be the permanent U.S. attorney in the nation's capital — one of the nation's largest prosecutorial offices — and his Senate confirmation hearing is bound to be interesting. Watch this space.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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