Ed Martin Leaves Role as Head of DOJ Weaponization Working Group

The Weaponization Working Group is tasked with reviewing activities of federal law enforcement agencies during the Biden administration.

Ed Martin speaks at an event in Washington on June 13, 2023. Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP Photo

Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyer Ed Martin is no longer head of the department’s working group that oversees investigations into the alleged weaponization of law enforcement under the Biden administration according to The Associated Press.

It remains unclear what led to Martin’s departure or whether he was removed from the post as head of the Weaponization Working Group.

A DOJ spokesperson told The Epoch Times that Martin will remain in his other role at the department as a pardon attorney.

“President [Donald] Trump appointed Ed Martin as Pardon Attorney and Ed continues to [do] a great job in that role,” the spokesperson said in a Feb. 3 emailed statement.

The Epoch Times reached out to Martin for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.

Martin, known for representing defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, previously served as acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Trump subsequently withdrew Martin’s nomination for that role after he failed to secure support from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), one of the Senate Republicans in the Judiciary Committee, and instead named Jeanine Pirro to the post.

Tillis said at the time that while he thought Martin “did a good job” in explaining that some defendants charged in the Capitol breach were over-prosecuted, “there were some—two or three hundred of them—that should have never gotten a pardon.”

After his nomination was withdrawn, Martin was appointed by Trump to various roles at the DOJ, including pardon attorney and head of the Weaponization Working Group, the latter of which he no longer serves.

On Feb. 2, Martin posted a photo of himself with lawyer Brendan Sullivan, who represented the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) in his 2008 corruption case, which was dismissed in 2009 due to prosecutorial misconduct. Stevens died in a 2010 plane crash in Alaska.

“Firsthand lessons about how DOJ was weaponized against their client the late Ted Stevens. We have work to do,” Martin said in the post on X, without elaborating.

The Weaponization Working Group has been tasked with reviewing activities of federal law enforcement agencies during the Biden administration, including the alleged weaponization of former special counsel Jack Smith, who investigated Trump’s actions challenging the results of the 2020 election and his handling of documents during his first term.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi established the working group in response to Trump’s executive order titled “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” which he issued after taking office for a second term on Jan. 20, 2025.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.