President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he was pulling Ed Martin as his nominee to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia after Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina voiced his opposition.
Martin is currently the acting U.S. attorney for D.C., but his appointment expires May 20, Politico reported.
His past work includes being chief of staff to Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, president of the conservative Eagle Forum and Legal Defense Fund, and chairman of the Missouri Republican Party.
“He’s a terrific person,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “He wasn’t getting the support from people that I thought. He’s done a very good job. Crime is down 25 percent in D.C. during his period of time,” as acting U.S. attorney since January.
“We have somebody else that will be great. I just want to say, Ed is unbelievable. Hopefully, we can bring him into — whether it’s DOJ or whatever, in some capacity,” the president added.
“I have to be straight. I was disappointed. A lot of people were disappointed. But that’s the way it works sometimes. That’s the way it works. And he wasn’t rejected, but we felt it would be very — it would be hard. And we have somebody else that we’ll be announcing over the next two days who’s going to be great,” Trump said.
🚨 BREAKING: It seems Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) succeeded in tanking the nomination of Ed Martin to U.S. Attorney for D.C.
Trump: “We have somebody else that will be great. I just want to say, Ed is unbelievable. Hopefully we can bring him into, whether it’s DOJ or whatever, in… pic.twitter.com/NYsK0sjIC3
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 8, 2025
Tillis, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters Tuesday that he was opposing Martin’s nomination, citing the attorney’s representation of Jan. 6 defendants.
Should Sen. Thom Tillis be challenged in the 2026 primaries?
“I met with Mr. Martin. He seems like a good man. Most of my concerns related to Jan. 6. I think anybody that breached the perimeter should have been imprisoned for some period of time, whether it’s 30 days or three years is debatable,” he said.
GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said he won’t back Ed Martin, Trump’s pick for top D.C. prosecutor, because of his work defending Jan. 6 rioters.
“I have no tolerance for anybody that entered the building on Jan. 6,” Tillis said. https://t.co/HOqOSQNmMq pic.twitter.com/40e3KbjD07
— POLITICO (@politico) May 6, 2025
“But I have no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on Jan. 6, and that’s probably where most of the friction was,” Tillis added.
“If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any district except the district where Jan. 6 happened, the protests happened, I’d probably support him,” the senator concluded.
Without Tillis’s support, the Judiciary Committee likely would have deadlocked 11-11, meaning Martin would not have been recommended to the full Senate for approval, according to Politico.
Martin’s nomination could have still been brought to the floor for a full vote, but would have faced other obstacles there, with GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, John Curtis of Utah, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky seen as uncertain, the outlet added.
Conservatives pointed out on social media that while Tillis is unwilling to back Martin, he did vote to confirm Merrick Garland as attorney general, whose Justice Department targeted Trump and over 1,500 Jan. 6 protesters for prosecution. Several of his Republican colleagues did the same, though 30 did not vote for Garland’s confirmation.
Here is who @ThomTillis thought deserved his vote. Tillis is a disgrace. pic.twitter.com/XeEIz3k1iW
— Sadie (@Sadie_NC) May 7, 2025
Turning Point USA president Charlie Kirk highlighted Wednesday on his “Real America’s Voice” program that Tillis voted for Matthew Graves, the D.C. U.S. attorney who oversaw the Jan. 6 prosecutions. To be clear, it was a voice vote, to which Tillis and apparently no other Republican objected, but point taken, the North Carolina senator allowed Graves to become the D.C. U.S. attorney.
IT GETS EVEN WORSE: REPUBLICAN SENATOR VOTED FOR MERRICK GARLAND
“Thom Tillis voted for Biden’s D.C. US attorney, but won’t vote for Trump’s US attorney.” @CharlieKirk11 leads us down memory lane of Tillis’ voting record of some unsavory people. pic.twitter.com/C1OZIzftQU— Real America’s Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) May 7, 2025
“Thom Tillis voted for Biden’s D.C. U.S. attorney, but he won’t vote for Trump’s U.S. attorney,” Kirk said.
The podcast host added, “The reason he gave was that, ‘I want every single person who breached the perimeter to go to jail from 30 days to 3 years.’ I’m sorry, breaching the perimeter, Mr. Tillis? This was not Normandy Beach. The vast majority of people on Jan. 6, the vast majority waltzed in through an open door.”
Some J6 Hostages already getting released.
And 1500 Jan 6th pardons and about 6 commutations –
President Trump already told a reporter to go stand over there with her friends 😂 pic.twitter.com/dDwTsiq3Zz— TRUTH NOW ⭐️⭐️⭐️🗽 🎺 (@sxdoc) January 21, 2025
On his first day in office in January, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences for all the Jan. 6 defendants, saying they had been held as political hostages by the Biden administration.
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