By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department has demoted Ed Martin, a senior official tasked with reviewing alleged improper uses of the legal system against President Donald Trump and his supporters, a source familiar with the move said on Monday.
Martin, a Trump ally, is no longer the head of the DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, the source said. Attorney General Pam Bondi started the effort last year to examine alleged political motivations behind the department’s criminal cases against Trump, the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and other actions taken during former President Joe Biden’s term.
Martin remains at the department as pardon attorney, tasked with recommending to the White House people who should be pardoned for federal crimes or have their sentences cut short. He no longer has an office in Justice Department headquarters and was moved to a satellite office where the pardon attorney staff are housed, the source said. The source spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an internal personnel move.
Asked to comment on whether Martin had been demoted, a Justice Department spokesman said only: “President Trump appointed Ed Martin as Pardon Attorney and Ed continues to do a great job in that role.”
Martin could not immediately be reached for comment.
Trump initially named Martin as interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., in January 2025, where he oversaw the dismissal of all remaining Capitol riot cases and the firings and demotions of prosecutors who worked on them. His nomination to serve in the role permanently stalled in the Senate, where some Republicans expressed misgivings about his support for rioters.
Trump then named Martin to a varied Justice Department role that included overseeing the Weaponization Working Group and recommending pardons. His actions in the post have repeatedly drawn scrutiny.
Martin’s role has included working on a report re-examining the Capitol attack, Reuters reported in December.
Federal prosecutors also sought information from a witness in a mortgage-related investigation into Democratic U.S. Senator Adam Schiff of California, a longtime Trump adversary, about communications with Martin and William Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The subpoenas suggested the DOJ was also scrutinizing the actions of Martin and Pulte, who both played important roles in mortgage investigations against at least three critics of the administration.
The department in September retracted a demand from Martin for information from an FBI agent who previously testified against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a defamation case tied to the 2012 school massacre in Newton, Connecticut.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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