President Donald Trump’s nominee for United States Attorney for the District of Columbia has made a string of racist and incendiary comments, his online history shows.
Recent tweets show Ed Martin, the current interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. who helped organize the “Stop the Steal” movement after Trump’s 2020 election defeat, has accused former Vice President Kamala Harris of “self-identifying” as Black, compared DEI policies to Jim Crow laws, and baselessly claimed Planned Parenthood targets Black women. The Guardian first reported the comments.
The Independent has reached out to his office for comment.
When asked for comment on his online rhetoric, a White House spokesperson told The Independent in a statement: “President Trump was given a resounding mandate by the American people to restore law and order. His nomination of Ed Martin underscores his commitment to making America safe again, starting with our nation’s capital.”
The man picked to be the top prosecutor of the nation’s capital previously worked as chief of staff for former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, chair of the Missouri Republican Party, and was a member of the RNC Platform Committee. This year, he became the first U.S. attorney for D.C. in at least 50 years to be nominated without experience as a judge or a federal prosecutor, the Washington Post reported.
Martin has repeatedly made racist comments about Harris, Trump’s former 2024 Democratic rival, describing her as a “self-identified Black woman.” At one point, he compared Harris, whose parents are from Jamaica and India, to Rachel Dolezal, who falsely presented herself as a Black woman, sparking nationwide outrage.
“Move over, Rachel Dolezal. Why Kamala Harris can never be black,” Martin wrote on X last July.
He also repeatedly referred to Harris as a “DEI” candidate. “The DEl answer is, when lndian-American Kamala Harris wanted to be chosen as Biden's VP, she had to self-identify as a black woman. And that's allowed,” he remarked last August. “Hillary Clinton must be kicking herself that she didn't do it.”
While on the campaign trail, she faced numerous questions about her race and was accused of being a “diversity, equity, and inclusion candidate” — despite then serving as the vice president and previously serving as a Senator and attorney general of California. Around the same time as Martin’s comments, Trump went so far as to claim that she “happened to turn Black” only recently.
He even compared DEI policies to Jim Crow laws, which enforced and legalized racial segregation. “Proud to help President Trump to lead on the fight for merit and against racism. Like DEI and Jim Crow laws, let’s send these racist laws to the ash bin of history,” he wrote Tuesday on his official U.S. Attorney X account.
Martin has also described former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, as “racist.”
“Joe Biden is an absolute and despicable racist, who views people's value by the color of their skin, while rewarding people with bad character,” he said last March, adding: “You can figure out what Martin Luther King, Jr. would think of Joe Biden. May be why MLKJr was a registered Republican voter.”
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was not a registered Republican or Democrat. “Dr. King never believed in any kind of party identification,” Rev. Lewis Baldwin, a religious studies professor, told CNN in 2016. “He never allowed himself to become closely aligned with partisan politics. He occasionally said that both the Democratic and Republican Party had betrayed his people.”
Last week, Martin wrote: “Make DC Safe Again. End [Black Lives Matter] brutality on DC citizens.”
Martin, who as a RNC platform committee leader advocated for a nationwide abortion ban and discussed imprisoning women who’ve received abortions, has also repeatedly perpetrated a false claim that Planned Parenthood targets Black women to get abortions.
“Since Planned Parenthood has successfully positioned their abortion services targeting Black Americans, when is it okay to call them white supremacists?” he wrote in February 2023.
Last July, he posted a cartoon comparing slavery to abortion, showing a slave telling a baby in heaven: “I know how you feel.”
Since being named interim U.S. Attorney for D.C., Martin has ordered his office to internally review its handling of January 6 Capitol riot prosecutions. He wrote in an email: “Obviously, the use was a great failure of our office … and we need to get to the bottom of it.” He has also fired some staff tied to these investigations.
Democratic Senators last week filed a misconduct complaint to the D.C. bar against Martin, in part for failing to recuse himself related to the Capitol riot. He represented some January 6 defendants in his private practice and then moved to dismiss charges against these clients in his current role, the Senators argued.
They also noted his statements that “threaten prosecution with the apparent intent of intimidating government employees and chilling the speech of private citizens,” including tweets threatening to pursue legal action against anyone who impedes Elon Musks’ work.
“When a government lawyer, particularly one entrusted with a leadership role in the nation’s foremost law enforcement agency, commits serious violations of professional conduct, it undermines the integrity of our justice system and erodes public confidence in it,” the Senators wrote.
When nominating Martin, Trump posted on his Truth Social last month: “Since Inauguration Day, Ed has been doing a great job as Interim U.S. Attorney, fighting tirelessly to restore Law and Order, and make our Nation’s Capital Safe and Beautiful Again. He will get the job done.”
His nomination was sent to the Senate Tuesday.
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