Trump ally “Eagle Ed” Martin’s departure from DOJ doesn’t signal an end to political weaponization—it just means Todd Blanche can do it better without him.Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP
Ed Martin, a trench-coat donning former “Stop the Steal” advocate whose work at various senior Justice Department jobs was charactered by brash, bumbling efforts to use the department to punish critics of President Donald Trump, is leaving DOJ, Trump announced Friday.
“Ed is now leaving to go outside to fight Legal Battles for the upcoming Midterm Election, and the Presidential Election of 2028,” Trump posted.
Martin, early in the Trump’s term, was the most vocal proponent of Trump’s claim that he could order federal prosecutors to pursue his critics. But Martin’s exit is not victory for the rule of law. It is a sign that newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche, who had been a critic of Martin’s attention-seeking antics, is ushering in an era in which Trump’s wish to weaponize DOJ against his foes is more competently pursued.
Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Martin is a political journeyman who lost a series of races in Missouri and ran far-right advocacy organizations. He wasn’t hugely successful: in 2017, Martin was hawking a coloring book based on Trump tweets. But Martin, who gave himself the moniker “Eagle Ed,” gained national attention in 2020 as an advocate of Trump’s false claims about that year’s election, and later as a lawyer for indicted January 6 rioters. Martin’s statements in that period include claiming that antifa was behind the attack, calling it a “hoax,” dubbing Capitol rioters “patriots,” and arguing those prosecuted for the riot deserved “reparations.”
Trump’s selection of Martin as interim US attorney for Washington, DC, last year, along with the pardon of 1,600 Capitol attackers, was a middle finger to DOJ and the federal prosecutors in Washington who brought almost of all the January 6 cases.
As the acting US attorney, Martin fired and demoted many of those prosecutors. He also began issuing a torrent of typo-strewn tweets and letters in which he threatened to investigate or prosecute Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, anti-Trump protestors, Georgetown University, and many others, all for what appeared to be protected speech at odds with Trump’s pronouncements.
“Noone [sic] is above the law,” Martin wrote in one letter to Elon Musk threatening to prosecute people who publicly identified DOGE employees.
Martin’s days as US Attorney ended amid fixed opposition to his confirmation by Senate Democrats and by Sen. Thom Tillis, who opposed Martin due to his connection to the January 6 attack. Martin hurt his own chances when, as Mother Jones reported, he lied about his ties to a January 6 defendant infamous for dressing as Hitler.
With his confirmation as a US attorney blocked, Trump named Martin head of the so-called weaponization task force set up to hound critics, local prosecutors and other connected to investigations and multiple indictments Trump faced during his first term and the Biden presidency. Trump also made Martin his chief pardon attorney, a job from which Martin memorably hatched a plan for Trump to issue pardons for so-called fake electors, though those people, prosecuted in state courts, could not benefit from presidential pardons. Trump did it anyway.
In a press conference held last year, Martin said that the task force would work to publicize its work. Even if people they targeted could not be charged, he said, “we will name them…and in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are ashamed.” That was a pledge to violate DOJ tradition and written rules that the department pursue justice by prosecuting crimes in court rather than through public relations offensives.
But Martin made good on it. He appeared outside the Brooklyn home of New York Attorney General Letitia James in August 2025, wearing a trench coat, and posed for pictures taken by the New York Post—part of a bid to draw attention to claims that James committed fraud in private real estate dealings, a largely undisguised effort to retaliate against James for the successful civil case her office brought against Trump for fraud.
But it wasn’t all bluster. Martin had a role in investigations into former CIA Director John Brennan and Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook, the Letitia James indictment, and that of former FBI Director James Comey, though the cases against Comey and James were thrown out. (DOJ later charged Comey again for allegedly threatening Trump by posting a picture of seashells arranged to say “86 47.”)
But Martin’s role at DOJ was steadily curtailed by Blanche, who reportedly believed Martin was overly focused on publicity with minimal achievement. Martin was ousted from the weaponization task force in February. Trump’s April firing of Pam Bondi as Attorney General and elevation of Blanche to acting AG was bad news for Eagle Ed. Martin’s exit comes a few weeks after Blanche’s confirmation.
Blanche appears to have sought Trump’s support for the nomination as Attorney General by advancing cases like the Comey seashell indictment and by pushing Trump’s plan for a $1.8 billion fund to pay January 6 defendants and others who claim they were politically prosecuted.
Blanche said he dropped the plan for the fund, though not a connected agreement that purports to spare Trump and his family members from IRS audits, amid pushback from Senate Republicans.
But any hope that Blanche’s confirmation would lead to his backing off from efforts to make DOJ a tool of Trump’s personal agenda quickly took a hit. First, Blanche spoke at a campaign rally for a Trump-endorsed candidate, in alleged violation of a law barring federal employees from partisan political campaigning while on the job.
Then, in a recent television appearance, Blanche declined to say that the Justice Department is independent of presidential directives. “I’m not going to pledge that,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press, adding that he would allow Trump to weigh in on individual prosecution decisions. “The elected president of the United States says something to me,” Blanche said. “And I’m supposed to say to you, ‘I would say no.’ I mean, that’s not the way it works.”
Blanche’s problem with Martin was not his effort to launch political prosecutions, but Martin’s poor execution of them, it seems. Martin is not leaving DOJ due to his intentions. The problem, apparently, is incompetence. With more effective advocates of Trump’s weaponization wishes consolidating power, fans of the rule of law may already miss Martin’s ineptitude.
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