Trump's pick to be DC's top prosecutor failed to report nearly 200 appearances on far-right media outlets to Senate

CNN

17-04-2025

Ed Martin, the Trump administration's nominee to serve as US attorney for Washington, DC, failed to report hundreds of media appearances he's made in the past few years, including many on far-right outlets and Russian-state media, when he first filed his mandated disclosure forms to Congress, a CNN review found.
Martin, a longtime conservative activist and former chair of the Missouri Republican Party, has filled the role in an acting capacity since January. He's drawn attention for a number of controversial moves during his tenure, including referring to the nation's largest office of federal prosecutors as 'President Trumps' [sic] lawyers,' and demoting senior attorneys who worked on January 6, 2021, Capitol riot cases.
After Trump formally nominated him for the permanent job in March, Martin submitted mandatory paperwork to the Senate, including what is supposed to be a detailed account of all his past media appearances.
But a CNN KFile analysis of Martin's initial 27-page disclosure form reveals that it does not come close to capturing the extent of his media appearances, and it lacks any reference to at least 240 podcast, radio and TV interviews he's done in the past two years alone .
Martin has subsequently updated his disclosures twice this month, including filing a 12-page supplemental form dated April 15 that listed dozens more media appearances. Still, overall, his disclosures fail to capture the vast majority of his media appearances over the years.
CNN tallied 198 appearances Martin failed to disclose between 2023 and 2024, including ones in which he suggested that, as US attorney for DC, he would prosecute family members of former President Joe Biden and criminally charge people involved in federal investigations into Trump.
Martin noted in his initial disclosure form in March that there 'may be other materials I have been unable to identify, find or remember.' Just as he did in his April 7 disclosure update, Martin wrote in Tuesday's submission, 'I regret the errors and apologize for any inconvenience.'
While it's not unusual for nominees from either party to omit some media appearances and later amend their disclosure forms, Martin's omissions in some cases appear to be glaring. He initially listed zero media appearances in 2023, for instance, but according to a CNN tally, he made at least 124 separate appearances across podcasts, radio shows and television that year.
Martin's updated form includes 19 appearances from 2023, leaving at least 105 appearances still unaccounted for.
Even the updates Martin submitted on Tuesday were incomplete. Most of the web links he provided do not work. And on multiple occasions, Martin failed to capture all of his appearances on a given day. For example, he added one interview with Sputnik on December 13, 2023, but failed to include three other podcast appearances CNN found from that day.
While Martin disclosed his podcast, 'The Pro America Report with Ed Martin,' in his paperwork, the episodes are unavailable to listen to across most major podcasting platforms.
At some point, within the five days before Martin submitted his paperwork to the Senate Judiciary Committee in late March, all episodes of his podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify were unavailable, according to a source involved in the committee review process.
CNN, however, saved those podcast episodes earlier this year.
Martin amended some of his disclosure paperwork in the early April letter sent to the committee and pushed back on committee Democrats who publicly accused him of removing 'nearly 1,000 hours' of podcasts from online platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
'I want to make clear that I have never deleted or removed my podcasts,' Martin wrote in a letter to the panel reviewed by CNN. 'After review, it appears those platforms are aggregating my podcasts, possibly for UX or storage purposes.'
Martin pointed to segments of his podcast on SoundCloud, which he did not include in his paperwork but are available to listen to, and he claimed that 'online platforms appear to be reconfiguring podcast titles and segments unbeknownst to me.'
A Spotify spokesperson told CNN it did not remove the show from its platform. CNN reached out to Apple for comment but did not receive a response.
The undisclosed appearances mostly include Martin's comments on far-right outlets as well as at least 27 appearances on Russian-state podcasts in 2023 and 2024.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that Martin appeared on Russian state media more than 150 times between 2016 and 2024. A Martin spokesperson told the Post, 'Mr. Martin has disclosed all of the [Washington Post] identified links in a supplemental letter to the Senate.'
'This is routine activity in preparation for confirmation,' said the spokesperson and referred questions to the White House.
In response to a detailed list of questions, Martin's office referred CNN to the White House, which did not respond.
One former Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee staffer who worked on confirming Democratic and Republican nominees during the Clinton and Bush administrations said a scenario where an individual did not disclose multiple speeches or appearances would be a 'huge concern' and 'super problematic.'
'There would be criticism of the Justice Department for failing to properly vet the nominee and make sure that it was disclosed,' said the former staffer, who didn't want to be identified for fear of retaliation by Martin. 'But the predominant consequence in a normal political environment would be that the person might not be confirmed because they hid information or failed to disclose relevant information.'
The clock is ticking on Martin's nomination, which the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, has not moved forward. Martin's status as acting US attorney expires on May 20, according to federal law. With the Senate scheduled to be out of town for the next two weeks, the timeline could get tight on bringing his nomination to a floor vote.
Congressional Democrats have sought probes into Martin's prosecutorial conduct. Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff earlier this month placed a hold on Martin's nomination because of Martin's rhetoric and conduct, which delays Republicans from moving forward and complicates the process. And Democrats have even taken the rare step of requesting a confirmation hearing.
While Martin is known for attacking Democrats, he has also gone after Republican lawmakers, and some are starting to raise concerns.
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, whom Martin once derided as 'soft' for supporting a bipartisan gun safety bill, told CNN last week that Martin was 'controversial' and said he is pushing for the panel to hold a hearing.
'I always think hearings are helpful,' said Cornyn, who added the idea of holding a hearing on Martin is being discussed among Senate Judiciary Republicans.
But in a statement to CNN, Grassley spokeswoman Clare Slattery indicated that the senator does not intend to hold hearings on Martin's nomination.
'The Senate Judiciary Committee hasn't held a hearing for a US Attorney nominee in more than 40 years, and not once in the time Grassley has chaired or been ranking on the committee. Chairman Grassley intends to maintain this precedent,' the statement said. 'The committee expects nominees to fully disclose all required materials as part of the standard nominations process, and Martin continues to make disclosures as part of that process.'
In other past comments, Martin referred to Utah Sen. John Curtis as a 'supposed Republican' and 'traitor' for voting to extend the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. He said Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski 'pretends to represent conservatives' and deserved to be primaried, and he praised the potential censure of Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins because she voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial. Martin also said Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell was part of a 'swamp fix' who became rich from their work in government.
This month, five former prosecutors who worked on January 6, 2021, cases sent a letter urging the DC bar's legal disciplinary office to investigate Martin for his conduct, citing Martin's public statements in which he suggested investigating 'perceived political enemies of himself and the President.'
Martin has a history of staking out hardline, socially conservative positions, including publicly advocating for a national abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest. He's even raised the idea of imposing criminal penalties on women and doctors involved in abortions, as CNN's KFile has previously reported.
Prior to heading one of the nation's most powerful US attorney's offices, Martin had no prosecutorial experience. He has served as a defense attorney for a handful of January 6 rioters.
During his four months as acting US attorney for Washington, DC, Martin has displayed his loyalty to Trump : He ordered a series of firings, demotions and reassignments of prosecutors working January 6 cases. He launched his own probes into Capitol riot prosecutions and the legality of Biden's twilight pardons, and he publicly promised Elon Musk that his office would investigate people threatening Musk and his government workers and 'chase them to the end of the Earth to hold them accountable.'
The New York Times reported earlier this month that Martin's office is pursuing an inquiry into Biden's pardons of his family members.
Martin previously worked as the president of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles – a socially conservative advocacy group named for the late anti-feminist activist. He was a leader in the 'Stop the Steal' movement that falsely claimed Trump won the 2020 presidential election.
In comments from a December 2024 radio interview that Martin failed to disclose, Martin criticized Biden for pardoning his son Hunter Biden.
'If I was the US attorney in Washington, DC, on January 21, I would impanel a grand jury. And I would call Hunter Biden before the grand jury, who has to go without a lawyer, and he has to answer questions because now he has immunity from prosecution. So the protection under the Constitution of not incriminating yourself goes away if you're immune,' said Martin on 'The Stevie Jay Morning Show.'
'If he doesn't answer the questions or he lies, he goes to jail because that's a new crime. It's not covered by Biden as the pardon,' said Martin, adding that he would like to look at other Biden family members who received pardons, naming the former president's brother James.
A week after the podcast episode aired, Martin was tapped to be the next chief of staff at the Office of Management and Budget. But by January 20, Trump appointed him as the interim US attorney for Washington, DC.
And in previously unreported comments Martin made on his podcast in August 2023, Martin said that the people involved in federal investigations into Trump should face criminal investigations and be 'charged under RICO,' which refers to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, most famously used to prosecute organized crime in the 1970s and 1980s.
Martin has also repeated January 6 conspiracy theories that 'Antifa' was possibly behind the violence and about the pipe bombs found near the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters that day, insisting that 'something stinks. Something stinks to high heaven.'
Martin said in a March 2024 episode of his podcast that 'if the FBI really can't find out what happened,' it's because 'either the FBI is corrupt, which I'm not willing to say yet, or someone bigger than the FBI has made it.'
He then baselessly speculated whether the military was involved in planting the pipe bombs.
'I remember someone told me afterwards that the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the military, has a lot of special ops things going on. I don't know if that's true. I'm just saying something bigger than the FBI is needed to hide this. Because the FBI has the tools to find something like this,' Martin said.
CNN's Kate Carroll and Winter Hawk contributed to this story.