Trump's DC prosecutor Ed Martin launches review of Jan. 6 cases
The acting U.S. attorney said he wants to "get to the bottom" of why an obstruction charge was used against some of the Capitol riot defendants Trump pardoned.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s top prosecutor for Washington, D.C., told Justice Department colleagues Monday that he is launching a “special project” to review the office’s handling of a federal charge brought against many of the 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants who received presidential pardons last week.
Ed Martin, who became the acting head of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia after Trump was inaugurated, said he was appointing two officials to look at the use of an obstruction of justice charge, which the Supreme Court determined had been used too broadly against some Jan. 6 defendants.
Martin’s office disbanded the Justice Department’s Capitol Siege Section and moved to dismiss cases against violent Jan. 6 rioters who attacked police officers. He also filed a motion last week that implored a judge to drop conditions that would have required some members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group to get court permission before they visit Washington or the U.S. Capitol after Trump commuted their Jan. 6 sentences.
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Martin wrote Monday that the two officials he selected would need to issue a preliminary report by Friday, and he asked all employees to pass along "all files, documents, notes, emails and other information" about the use of 18 U.S. Code 1512, which prosecutors often refer to as the "1512" charge. Martin referred to the review as "Project 1512" and called it "important work."
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