Ed Martin, the combative head of the DOJ's Weaponization Working Group and U.S. pardon attorney, is leaving the Justice Department to focus on election-related legal fights, departing with multiple ethics probes still hanging over him.
President Trump announced Martin's exit Friday on Truth Social, praising the attorney who had become one of the most polarizing figures inside the administration's Justice Department. Trump said Martin had "done an incredible job" and framed the move as a strategic deployment ahead of the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race.
Attorney General Todd Blanche echoed the praise on X, calling Martin "a patriot who loves this nation." Martin's own response was brief: "Proud to serve. Fight Fight Fight."
But the warm send-off from the top of the administration belies the turbulence Martin generated during his tenure, and the unresolved questions he leaves behind. His time at DOJ drew ethics complaints, a D.C. Bar inquiry, threats against a major university, letters warning Democratic lawmakers they were under investigation, and a federal grand jury probe that appears to have examined his own conduct.
Martin initially served as acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia while his formal nomination was pending. That nomination never made it through the Senate. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) refused to support the pick because Martin had represented numerous clients who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Without Tillis's vote, the confirmation route collapsed, and Trump eventually withdrew the nomination. AP News reported that Fox News host Jeanine Pirro replaced him in the D.C. post.
Rather than leave, Martin was moved into a dual role: head of the Weaponization Working Group and U.S. pardon attorney. He had held both positions since May 14, 2025, Fox News reported. That arrangement gave him unusual reach inside the department, and unusual exposure to criticism.
Even before his departure was announced, the DOJ had already stripped Martin of his Weaponization Working Group role. A person familiar with the matter told AP that the group under Martin's leadership "was not making much progress." The removal caught officials off guard and left Martin with only the pardon attorney title heading into Friday's announcement.
While serving as acting U.S. attorney, Martin moved to dismiss cases involving some of his own former clients, people he had represented as a private attorney before joining the government. That decision prompted Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, to request an ethics investigation in 2025. Durbin's letter did not hold back.
As The Hill reported, Durbin wrote:
"By not recusing himself from this matter, Mr. Martin created an impermissible conflict of interest and appearance of impropriety by using his new government office to favor his client, whom he was defending from the very charges he sought to dismiss."
The D.C. Bar's Office of Professional Responsibility subsequently took up an inquiry into Martin's conduct. The outcome of that inquiry has not been made public. Martin leaves the department with that matter still unresolved.
The Justice Department has been active on multiple fronts during this period. The same department recently filed denaturalization cases against convicted criminals in what officials called a historic enforcement effort, a reminder that the DOJ's credibility depends on consistent application of the rules, including to its own personnel.
Martin's tenure was not limited to case management. He sent a letter to Georgetown University warning that he would refuse to hire any interns or attorneys from the school unless it ended its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. He then escalated the threat, telling the university that a failure to respond would "bear directly" on its nonprofit status. That matter is also under investigation, though the specific body conducting the review has not been identified publicly.
He also sent letters to two sitting Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, informing them they were under investigation for past comments Martin alleged were threatening. The identity of the second lawmaker was not specified in reporting on the matter.
The administration has not shied away from aggressive legal postures elsewhere. The Justice Department argued in a separate matter that a social media post by former FBI Director James Comey could be read as a threat against the president, a case that drew its own wave of scrutiny.
Perhaps the most legally significant cloud over Martin involves a federal grand jury in Maryland. That panel took what The Hill described as the "highly unusual step" of launching a probe into one of the DOJ's own investigations, a review of mortgage fraud allegations against Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
A subpoena reviewed by The Hill asked a witness whether they had dealt with anyone "claiming to be working for or at the direction" of the Justice Department, including Martin. Other outlets, not named in The Hill's reporting, indicated prosecutors were evaluating whether Martin may have wrongly deputized two figures outside the DOJ to assist in the Schiff investigation. The identities of those figures and the current status of the grand jury probe remain unclear.
Martin's third DOJ role, special attorney for mortgage fraud, placed him at the center of that investigation. His departure does not resolve the questions the grand jury raised.
The timing of Martin's exit coincided with a new broadside from House Democrats. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, released a report Friday titled "Pardon Inc." The report accused the Trump administration of effectively selling pardons and singled out Martin's role as pardon attorney.
Raskin's panel described Martin's approach in pointed terms:
"Mr. Martin has since described his philosophy as 'No MAGA left behind' and has used his office to privilege clemency applications from the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and the two men convicted of plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer."
The report also cited specific pardon recipients and their financial ties to Trump. It noted that investor Trevor Milton and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to committees supporting Trump before Milton hired two attorneys with direct Trump ties and received a full pardon. Paul Walczak received a pardon 12 days after his mother attended a $1 million-per-plate Trump fundraiser. And Binance founder Changpeng Zhao hired a longtime friend of Donald Trump Jr. to lobby for clemency as Binance developed financial ties to the Trump family's cryptocurrency business before receiving a pardon.
Those characterizations, including the report's labeling of Milton as a "convicted investor fraudster" and Walczak as a "tax fraudster", are Raskin's panel's framing, not independently verified descriptions. The underlying facts are that both men received pardons. The administration has pursued its own legal strategy on multiple fronts, and Democrats have consistently used those moves as ammunition.
Martin replaced Liz Oyer as pardon attorney. Oyer was fired after refusing to recommend that actor Mel Gibson have his gun rights restored. A former senior adviser to Martin, Neil W. McCabe, offered a different view of his tenure, telling the New York Post that Martin "saved the US pardon office because his predecessor had such a toxic tenure that in the beginning of the Trump administration, there was a feeling at the White House and at Main Justice that the pardon office should be eliminated."
The New York Post reported that Martin told colleagues he planned to leave this year after establishing a process for felons to apply to regain gun rights, a program unveiled the Monday before his departure. Martin reportedly spent an hour with Trump at the White House on Friday discussing projects and reminiscing, suggesting a coordinated exit rather than a sudden firing.
But the picture is not entirely tidy. Martin had a "complicated relationship" with Attorney General Blanche, though sources insisted that friction did not prompt the departure. And the DOJ's earlier decision to strip Martin of the Weaponization Working Group, before Friday's announcement, suggests the administration had already begun distancing itself from him.
Trump's Truth Social post framed the departure in forward-looking terms:
"Ed is now leaving to go outside to fight Legal Battles for the upcoming Midterm Election, and the Presidential Election of 2028. I know he will do an outstanding job, ensure Free, Fair, and Honest Elections, and strongly advance our Constitutional Rights."
What specific organization or legal effort Martin will lead remains unclear. So does the status of the D.C. Bar inquiry, the Georgetown investigation, and the Maryland grand jury probe. Martin leaves the department with praise from his allies, condemnation from his critics, and a stack of unanswered questions that will outlast his government tenure.
The White House has managed a series of high-profile personnel and policy transitions in recent months. Martin's exit adds one more to the list, and one more test of whether the administration can keep its legal house in order while deploying its fighters to the campaign trail.
When a government attorney leaves office with ethics probes still open and a grand jury still asking questions, the public deserves answers, no matter how many farewell salutes he collects on the way out.
