Washington President Donald Trump’s chief prosecutor for Washington, D.C., announced Monday that he is starting a special study to examine how the Justice Department handled a federal charge against many of the 1,500 offenders who were pardoned by the president last week.
Following Trump’s inauguration, Ed Martin, who took over as acting head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, announced that he was assigning two officials to examine the use of an obstruction of justice charge that the Supreme Court found had been applied too broadly against certain defendants on January 6.
Martin’s office pushed to dismiss prosecutions against violent rioters who attacked police officers on January 6 and abolished the Justice Department’s Capitol Siege Section. Following Trump’s commuting of their Jan. 6 sentences, he also filed a motion last week pleading with a judge to remove requirements that would have forced certain members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group to obtain court permission before visiting Washington or the U.S. Capitol.
Martin asked all staff to provide “all files, documents, notes, emails and other information” on the use of 18 U.S. Code 1512, which prosecutors frequently refer to as the “1512” charge, and stated in a letter on Monday that the two officials he chose would have to provide a preliminary report by Friday. The review was dubbed “Project 1512” by Martin, who described it as “important work.”
In an email that NBC News was able to obtain, Martin wrote, “Obviously, the use was a great failure of our office [Supreme Court] decision and we need to get to the bottom of it.” The email also reminded U.S. attorney’s office staff of the hiring freeze and the actions taken by the Trump administration to end all DEI efforts.
Martin, a supporter of Stop the Steal, spoke in the Capitol on January 5 and was present on the Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 violence before joining the Trump administration. Additionally, he served on the board of the Patriot Freedom Project, which hosted fundraisers at Trump’s properties and supported the defendants in the Jan. 6 case. Furthermore, he represented at least three detainees on January 6 and promoted conspiracy theories on the Capitol attack, erroneously asserting that the riot was a set-up orchestrated by someone he called “Mr. Coffee.”
Martin stated in 2023, “January 6th was Staged by Mr. Coffee,” alluding to an unnamed man who assisted in erecting a non-operational gallows on January 6 next to the Capitol.
The House Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Martin, claiming to have proof that he was “involved in the logistical planning” of Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6 and that he had covered expenses related to vendors contracted for the occasion.
Martin vowed to battle to the end to prevent the theft in his speech before the Capitol on January 5, 2021.
We must continue to fight regardless of what occurs tomorrow, the following day, or the day after. Here, there are no springtime patriots or summer troops. According to Martin at the moment, these are the ardent true Americans. We will halt the theft, so we begin today and continue through tomorrow and each day until we breathe our last and return to the Lord.
Prosecutors from the Justice Department who worked on the two federal criminal cases against Trump—one involving his use of classified documents and the other surrounding his attempts to reverse his 2020 election loss—were fired by the Trump administration on Monday. Those two cases were overseen by former special counsel Jack Smith.
Some officials interpret Martin’s “special project” as an indication that he is targeting some of the remaining unit’s leadership now that the Capitol Siege Section has been dismantled.
According to a Justice Department official, “it definitely smells like he’s trying to force them out.”
Several requests for comment from Martin were not answered.