Woman accused of spitting on ex-acting DC US Attorney Ed Martin arrested on assault charge
Emily Gabriella Sommer, 32, interrupted then-interim DC US Attorney Ed Martin in the middle of a May 8 Newsmax broadcast discussing the withdrawal of his nomination by Trump.
'Who in the f— are you?' Sommer, who goes by the moniker 'lefttits' on X, butted in while walking her dog.
Advertisement
'Are you Ed Martin? You are Ed Martin,' she shrieked before hocking a loogie right on the bewildered prosecutor's tan duster.
'You are a disgusting man. F— you, Ed Martin. My name is Emily Gabriella Sommer, and you are served,' she declared before marching away.
Though Sommer hadn't posted tweets since 2020, she hopped back on X after the incident to cop multiple times to the disgusting deed, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in DC federal court.
Advertisement
'ED, that was me that spit in your face today in front of your not USDC for D.C. Courthouse, that absolutely definitely spit in your face on camera. Hi, hello. A pleasure to hawk a dehydrated, pithy white foam spit into your face,' she posted.
'I only apologize that this city left me so dehydrated and unable to get water that I couldn't produce more to stain and drip down your face @EagleEdMartin you punk ass bitch cuckold,' she added.
'That was meant exactly and every bit for your disgusting pig-headed swine blooded white privileged racist, misogynist, and nepotism hire. That now can't even hold that down. LOL. Bye, enjoy that spit on your $6k lapel, your other white bitch CRACKER. I'll find that footage and laugh for a lifetime.'
Advertisement
Trump tapped ex-Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to replace Martin as interim US attorney, and the former Fox News star announced the complaint against Summer in one of her first acts since assuming the post.
Sommer faces one misdemeanor count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding a government official, which could earn her up to one year in prison.
The expectoration came after Martin left the US Attorney's Office following concerns from Republicans and Democrats about his past defenses of Jan. 6 rioters — including praise for one Nazi-sympathizing former defendant who had taken a picture of himself dressed as dictator Adolf Hitler.
4 Sommer called Martin a 'a disgusting man.'
NEWSMAX
Advertisement
4 Emily Gabriella Sommer was arrested on a federal assault charge for spitting on then-acting US Attorney Ed Martin Jr. during a TV interview.
NEWSMAX
4 Sommer identified herself on camera before spitting on Martin.
NEWSMAX
'I had known vaguely that he had a photo that was leaked … in the course of his prosecution,' Martin told The Post, before discussing how Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and he disagreed over his handling of Capitol riot cases early in his acting tenure.
'What I said to Senator Tillis about that situation and others was there were lots of people that were in jail for years who were freed from jail by the bipartisan Supreme Court decision,' he added, referencing a Supreme Court ruling throwing out hundreds of obstruction charges against riot defendants.
'They were people that had not hit a cop,' he also said. 'These people were really wronged — and they may not be nice people.'
4 The incident happened on the same day President Trump pulled Martin's nomination for US Attorney for the District of Columbia.
AP
Trump later appointed Martin to be the associate deputy attorney general and pardon attorney.
Advertisement
'He's a terrific person, and he wasn't getting the support from people that I thought,' the president said before Pirro's nomination was announced.
'I can only lift that little phone so many times in a day, but we have somebody else that will be great.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
11 minutes ago
- The Hill
Fewer Americans say they don't trust federal government: Survey
Fewer Americans said that they do not trust the federal government compared to figures compiled last year, according to a new survey that was released on Tuesday. The poll conducted by the Partnership for Public Service found that a third of Americans, 33 percent, trust the federal government, a 10-point increase since last year. Nearly half of U.S. adults, 47 percent, said they do not trust the government, representing a 16-point drop since 2024, when it was at 63 percent. Some 13 percent said they were neutral when asked, while another six percent did not have an answer. More than 4-in-10 Republicans, 42 percent, said in the survey that they trust the federal government, more than four times higher than last year when just 10 percent said the same. On the opposite end, 31 percent of Democrats said they trust the federal government, an eight-point drop from 2024. The fluctuations in trust are part of a historical pattern, with trust in government being higher among voters part of a party that controls the Oval Office, the pollster noted. More U.S. adults, 45 percent, argued the federal government has a negative impact on the nation compared to 42 percent who said it has a positive one. Two-thirds of Americans, 67 percent, said in the poll that the federal government is 'corrupt.' The number of Americans who said the federal government is 'wasteful,' 61 percent, is lower compared to 2024, when 85 percent agreed. The biggest increase when it comes to trust in government was registered among GOP voters under the age of 50, with more than half of them, 52 percent, stating that they have faith in government. Last year, the figure was at 28 percent. The survey was conducted from March 31-April 6 among 800 U.S. adults. The margin of error was 3.5 percentage points.
The Hill
11 minutes ago
- The Hill
Rove: Trump benefits from Mamdani campaign
Republican strategist Karl Rove posited Tuesday that President Trump could stand to benefit from Zohran Mamdani's campaign to the New York City mayor's office, arguing that the president could campaign against the young assemblymember's democratic socialism during the midterms. 'Trump is looking at it in a national picture and saying if New York has a democratic socialist mayor, and if you add one in Minneapolis, for example, we can run against them in the 2026 midterms,' Rove said on Fox News's 'America's Newsroom,' referencing Omar Fateh, a democratic socialist mayoral candidate who won the endorsement of Minnesota's Democratic Farmer Labor Party. 'Say, 'Look, here's what the new Democratic Party is all about. It's about free everything, democratic socialists, blah, blah, blah, blah.'' Mamdani embarked this week on a five-borough tour campaigning against the president, attempting to link him to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who is running in the mayor's race as an independent. Rove noted that the anti-Trump crusade could benefit the young Democrat. 'Look, it works for him because he is the frontrunner, and this allows him to eat up time,' Rove said. 'It leaves his opponents trying to catch up with him.' Rove added that Cuomo and other Democrats opposing Mamdani needed to find a way to shake up the race. 'The way to shake it up is to find a way to say, 'I'm the normal Democrat who can actually run this place, and that guy over there is extreme,'' he said.
Newsweek
13 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Trump Delivers Democrats' Dream Corporate Tax
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, a vocal critic of Donald Trump, startled political observers this week by urging Democrats to thank the president for doing what they "have NEVER been able to do": Impose a revenue skim on two of America's most profitable tech companies. "Hey @AOC, @BernieSanders, @SenSchumer, @SenWarren — every Dem should be thanking @potus for doing what the Dems have dreamed of doing, but have NEVER been able to do," Cuban posted on X on Aug. 11. "He is going to generate corporate tax revenue that you guys only wish you could pass." Hey @AOC , @BernieSanders , @SenSchumer , @SenWarren , every Dem should be thanking @potus for doing what the Dems have dreamed of doing, but have NEVER been able to do, creating a sales tax on 2 of the biggest semi companies in the country ! This opens the door for Sales Tax… — Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 11, 2025 Cuban was referring to a new Trump administration deal requiring the leading chipmakers Nvidia and AMD to pay the U.S. government 15 percent of revenue from sales of certain artificial intelligence chips to China — a condition for receiving export licenses. While the White House has avoided calling it a tax, Cuban labeled it a "billionaire's sales tax" and "the ULTIMATE wealth tax," framing it as the kind of corporate levy progressives have long advocated for but failed to deliver. An Unprecedented Chip 'Commission' The deal marks a sharp departure from standard export-control practices. Traditionally, companies apply for export licenses without paying a percentage of their sales to the government. But under this arrangement, the Commerce Department will grant licenses for Nvidia's H20 and AMD's MI309 chips — lower-performance versions of their top AI semiconductors tailored to meet prior U.S. security restrictions — but under the unusual condition that the companies hand over 15 percent of revenues generated from those sales. Analysts estimate the policy could generate up to $3 billion annually for the Treasury. That's pocket change in the context of a $7 trillion federal budget, but significant in terms of precedent. "He took 15% of equity from a company," Cuban wrote on X, adding, "That is the ULTIMATE wealth tax... a progressive dream!" Mark Cuban (left) praised Donald Trump's (center) deal with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (right) requiring the company to share 15% of certain China chip sales with the U.S. government — calling it a 'progressive dream'... Mark Cuban (left) praised Donald Trump's (center) deal with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (right) requiring the company to share 15% of certain China chip sales with the U.S. government — calling it a 'progressive dream' tax, even as critics raise legal and security concerns. More Getty Images Cuban — who campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 — argued that Democrats have been too "dogmatic" in pushing traditional tax hikes instead of exploring unconventional leverage points. "They are so intent on income and wealth taxes on 'oligarchs,' they have no concept of leverage in business," he said. "Trump does." Chris Miller, foreign policy scholar and author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology, told Newsweek the deal also signals "a very significant shift in policy." He noted that the Trump administration had previously emphasized tightening restrictions on China but now "appears to have shifted toward prioritizing U.S. firms' sales and deprioritizing the national security concerns that had dominated" earlier thinking. Critics See Danger, Supporters See Pragmatism For decades, Democrats have pushed to make big corporations "pay their fair share" through higher corporate tax rates, windfall profit taxes and even wealth taxes on billionaires. Yet those proposals rarely make it through Congress, even when it's controlled by Democrats. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act imposed a 15 percent minimum tax on large corporations' book income, but more ambitious corporate tax hikes have failed. "POTUS is more progressive when it comes to taxation than anyone in the progressive wing of the Dems has ever been. The Dems should be celebrating just how progressive it is," Cuban wrote on X. "The irony." US Representative from Illinois Raja Krishnamoorthi speaks on the fourth and last day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 22, 2024. US Representative from Illinois Raja Krishnamoorthi speaks on the fourth and last day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 22, 2024. Getty Images While Cuban celebrated the chip scheme as clever, U.S. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi saw it as a dangerous misstep. The top Democrat on the House China Select Committee told Newsweek the administration was taking "one of our most important national security tools" — export controls — and twisting them into "a pay-to-play scheme with no clear legal authority, congressional oversight, or transparency." "You cannot treat something as both a national security threat and a revenue opportunity without signaling to Beijing that our principles and national security are for sale," he said. If certain chips are too risky to sell, "those exports should be prohibited outright, not monetized." Orde Kittrie, a law professor at Arizona State University and former State Department attorney, agreed the arrangement is "inconsistent" with constitutional provisions reserving taxing power to Congress and prohibiting export duties. In an interview with Newsweek, he also questioned whether the funds could become "a kind of presidential slush fund" outside normal appropriation rules. The risk of undermining export policy is also a concern for Derek Scissors, a China expert at the center-right think tank American Enterprise Institute. He told Newsweek the deal "looks like a pathway for export controls to be continually violated" by allowing companies to buy exemptions whenever it is profitable. "They're calling it a fee," Scissors added. "Plain language says 15 percent of sales revenue is a tax." The office building of Nvidia Corporation in Neihu Technology Park, Taipei, Taiwan, July 25, 2022. The office building of Nvidia Corporation in Neihu Technology Park, Taipei, Taiwan, July 25, 2022. BING-From a policy standpoint, Bill Reinsch, a former Commerce Department official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told Newsweek the precedent is "even more corrosive" because "the message it sends is that security is negotiable." "Licensing decisions should be based on a national security assessment of the items in question... not a payment," he said. But not everyone in the financial world sees danger. Eric Schiffer, investor and chairman of The Patriarch Organization, told Newsweek he agrees with Cuban's take that the move is "a form of tax that you'd think Democrats would like." "Mark is correct," Schiffer said. "But I don't see the Trump administration applying it aggressively or broadly. It will be tactical and at the president's discretion." He added that for Nvidia and AMD, it's "a big win" because it reopens a market they had lost, and "paying a small fee is worth it for them." Legal and Political Uncertainty Ahead Whether this move remains an isolated maneuver or signals a new model for extracting corporate revenue could hinge on how the courts — or Congress — respond. Critics like Kittrie note that Article I of the Constitution prohibits export taxes and reserves taxing authority for Congress, which could make the 15 percent revenue skim vulnerable to legal challenge. "Article 1 Section 9 prohibits the imposition of export taxes or duties," he said. "The 15 percent arrangement would appear to be exactly that, and thus prohibited to both Congress and the executive branch." On Capitol Hill, Krishnamoorthi has signaled the committee's intent to scrutinize the deal, warning it risks undermining America's credibility in enforcing export controls. If challenges emerge, they could also pull in trade law disputes at the World Trade Organization, where U.S. trading partners may view the measure as discriminatory or beyond the bounds of standard licensing fees. In this photo illustration a smartphone screen displays the logo for the app for Chinese AI company DeepSeek in front of the Nvidia website on January 27, 2025 in Bath, England. In this photo illustration a smartphone screen displays the logo for the app for Chinese AI company DeepSeek in front of the Nvidia website on January 27, 2025 in Bath, Chaisse, a trade law professor at City University of Hong Kong, told Newsweek such a case could attract multiple countries to join a WTO challenge, framing it as a dangerous precedent for tying export licenses to revenue transfers. He said the 15 percent requirement "far exceeds the administrative cost" of licensing and could be viewed as a disguised trade restriction. And while Beijing has urged Chinese companies to avoid using those processors—particularly for government-related purposes—for now, Nvidia and AMD are paying, China is buying, and Cuban is applauding a president he often criticizes. As the billionaire put it on X: "Sometimes you have to find a different path to get the results you want. You can't be dogmatic when you want to help people."
