Trump Pardon Attorney Reviewed Full Clemency Request For Oath Keepers Leader
Ed Martin, President Donald Trump's new pardon attorney, has examined a recommendation for Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers group, to receive a full pardon over his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, according to newsreports.
Martin was presented with the pardon applications of Rhodes and 10 others during a meeting with Peter Ticktin, a lawyer and leader at the conservative American Rights Alliance nonprofit, last week.
'I know Ed Martin and I felt it was important to bring these particular applications to his attention,' Ticktin told Politico, which was first to report on the lawyer's application to grant Rhodes full clemency.
Over the weekend, Martin posted a photo of his meeting with Ticktin, which Politico says took place Thursday.
'I listened! Cuz he's wise,' Martin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Hours after his inauguration in January, Trump pardoned about 1,500 defendants charged in the Capitol riot — including those who assaulted police — and issued some commutations. Rhodes, who received an 18-year prison sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy charges, was among those who had their sentences commuted.
Besides Rhodes, Ticktin said he also recommended full pardons for Proud Boys members Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, Politico and CBS News reported. CBS added that Ticktin also referenced pardon requests for two other Jan. 6 defendants, Dan Wilson and Elias Costianes, who were sentenced to prison over charges unrelated to the Capitol insurrection.
Ticktin has made clear that Martin has not guaranteed that their applications would be successful, but said he would pass them on to Trump's pardon czar, Alison Johnson, for review.
Martin has previously worked to defend Jan. 6 rioters. Apart from representing three defendants in the past, he once sat on the board of the Jan. 6 defendant advocacy group Patriot Freedom Project and attended the Stop the Steal rally on the eve of the Capitol attack. He also posted on social media on Jan. 6, likening the atmosphere in D.C. to that of Mardi Gras.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday, Martin, a major Trump ally, said he has been inundated with pardon requests since he started his role as pardon attorney last week. Martin said he would examine the requests he's received with a focus on 'the forgotten man and woman.'
Martin's first full clemency recommendation to Trump was successful after the president announced he was pardoning Scott Jenkins, a former Virginia sheriff convicted of federal bribery charges, the Journal noted.
Trump has since said he is pardoning reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted in 2022 of bank fraud and tax evasion. According to The New York Times, he also granted full clemency to Paul Walczak, who pleaded guilty to tax crimes last year, after his mother attended a fundraising dinner for the president at Mar-a-Lago.
Martin served as the interim U.S. attorney for D.C. after Trump appointed him to the temporary post in January. But the president was forced to pull his nomination after he faced bipartisan opposition in the Senate for dropping cases against Jan. 6 defendants, among other things.
Instead, Trump gave him three new assignments at the Justice Department, making him the new director of the so-called weaponization working group, associate deputy attorney general and pardon attorney.
Oath Keepers Founder Stewart Rhodes Visits Capitol Hill After Trump Pardon
Trump Says He's Dropping Controversial Nominee Ed Martin
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