Top DC prosecutor announces new election fraud unit, though authority and scope are unclear
Edward R. Martin Jr., now the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, speaks at an event at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., in June 2023. (Photo by Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Associated Press)
The top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., is leading a new initiative to investigate election fraud cases.
Edward R. Martin Jr., who was appointed and sworn in as the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in January, told staff in an internal email that he needed volunteers to staff a new office called the “Special Unit: Election Accountability.”
According to Martin’s email, which was reported on by Bloomberg Law, Reuters and the Associated Press, the new office has opened one investigation.
“Americans do not have confidence in our election systems,” Martin reportedly said. “One of the best ways to restore that confidence is to protect our systems and demand accountability.”
President Donald Trump nominated Martin to serve permanently as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. He has promoted Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and threatened to investigate members of Congress and others who criticize Trump.
The Associated Press also reports that Martin represented at least three defendants in criminal cases after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and was on the board of a nonprofit that raised money for riot defendants and their families.
David Becker, a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, told the Associated Press that the scope of the new unit is unclear.
“I’m waiting to see more about what this unit actually is, what jurisdiction it purports to claim, what authority it tends to seize, and what laws it purports to enforce,” Becker said.
Last week, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, called for the DOJ’s inspector general to investigate Martin, accusing him of violating the law and repeatedly ignoring legal ethics as he seeks to root out people he perceives as undermining Trump’s agenda.
Raskin said in his letter Martin had fired more than a dozen career federal prosecutors who worked on investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Nearly 100 former federal prosecutors from the office that Martin now leads also called on the U.S. Senate to reject his nomination as a U.S. attorney, citing his political motives.
See also:
Interim US attorney conducts late-Friday firings of more than two dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors
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