Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are asking the District of Columbia’s bar association to investigate Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in the capital, saying that he had “abused” prosecutorial power to threaten his political opponents.
In a letter to the bar association on Thursday, the senators, led by Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the committee’s top Democrat, also accused Mr. Martin of violating professional standards by refusing to recuse himself from a case involving a Capitol rioter he privately represented and dismissing charges against the man.
Mr. Martin, a Missouri Republican who has used social media to threaten critics of President Trump and Elon Musk, has upended one of the most important U.S. attorney’s offices in the country. He has purged nonpolitical career staff involved in the investigations of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and at times directly interceded in prosecutorial decision-making.
“Mr. Martin has abused his position in several ways,” Mr. Durbin wrote, referring his complaint to the bar association’s office of disciplinary counsel, the body that recommended the disbarment of Rudolph W. Giuliani over false claims he made in lawsuits after the 2020 election.
“Mr. Martin’s conduct not only speaks to his fitness as a lawyer,” added Mr. Durbin, who signed the letter with nine other Democrats, but “his activities are part of a broader course of conduct by President Trump and his allies to undermine the traditional independence of Department of Justice investigations and prosecutions and the rule of law.”
A spokesman for Mr. Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Trump has nominated Mr. Martin, who also promoted his false claims about the 2020 election, to be the permanent U.S. attorney in Washington. But Mr. Martin’s targeting of opponents, while in sync with the president’s demands for retribution, has alienated some Senate Republicans and could complicate his chances of confirmation. A date for his confirmation hearings has not been set.