A vocal “Stop the Steal” activist who sat on a board advocating for Jan. 6 defendants has been named interim U.S. attorney for Washington. D.C., an office that has control over hundreds of cases related to the 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The appointment of Ed Martin, a longtime GOP operative from Missouri and board member of the Patriot Freedom Project, was confirmed by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department. Trump had also appointed him as chief of staff to the Office of Management and Budget in December.
Martin is not only a supporter of the defendants and the effort to overturn the 2020 election results, but was an active participant in the effort to throw out former President Joe Biden’s victory. In a speech at the Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, he called on “die-hard true Americans” to work until their “last breath” to “stop the steal.”
On Jan. 6, Martin tweeted that he was “at the Capitol,” where he asserted that here was “nothing out of hand.” He then compared the gathering of “love, faith and joy” to Mardi Gras — shortly after rioters breached the building and Ashli Babbitt was shot. Moments later, another rioter would drive a stun gun into a Capitol police officer’s neck as the crowd sought to break through the lower west tunnel.
Martin previously served as chief of staff to former Missouri governor Matt Blunt and ran the state party. He gained national prominence in the last several years by aligning himself with anti-feminist activist Phyllis Schlafly, co-writing a book with her that urged conservatives to vote for Trump in 2016, shortly before her death.
In 2024, he served as a policy director for the Republican National Committee, where he advocated for the jailing of women who get abortions and a national ban without exceptions for rape and incest.
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