Do you recall Ed Martin? He was anticipated to be the next United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, until Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) derailed his full-time nomination; he had been serving in an interim capacity until May 2025. But he wasn’t gone for long; he was named a pardon attorney and helmed the weaponization task force inside the Trump Justice Department. He was the point of the lance on the ongoing probe into former President Biden’s use of the autopen.
"Weaponization [Working Group] efforts ended on New Year's Eve," a DOJ insider told me.
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) February 3, 2026
Apparently, things have taken a turn for the worse: the task force has been shut down, Martin has lost his title of assistant attorney general, and he’s virtually been gutted from the institution. Is Todd Blanche to blame? (via WaPo):
Top Justice Department officials have stripped Ed Martin of the bulk of his expansive responsibilities, leaving the staunch ally of President Donald Trump on the sidelines of many of the controversial investigations he has championed, according to two people familiar with the personnel move.
As a result of the changes, Martin will no longer chair the department’s Weaponization Working Group, which was tasked with reviewing special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions of Trump and other examples of what Trump sees as “prosecutorial abuse,” according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel move that has not been made public. The group itself continues to meet. Martin also lost his title as an assistant attorney general.
Martin will continue to serve as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney but will no longer work at department headquarters. Instead, his office will be located in another Justice Department building in Northeast Washington, pulling him away from the attorney general and the most powerful figures in the department, according to a person familiar with the move. The pardon office is in that Northeast Washington building.
Justice Department officials informed Martin in early December of the demotion, and it went into effect at the end of 2025. It is unclear whether he will remain in the pardon attorney role and, if so, for how long.
This represents a severe and abrupt development for Martin; however, considering the complexity of Washington, D.C., where numerous interests and factions are engaged—particularly within the Department of Justice—such conflicts and competitions are routine.
Blanche did well on the Sunday Talk Shows, but if this is true regarding the Russian accountability stuff, per Paul Sperry, that's very troubling.
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