Latest news with #EdMartin
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Pirro clears Senate Judiciary Committee vote for D.C. U.S. attorney
Jeanine Pirro came one step closer to becoming the District of Columbia's full-time U.S. attorney on Thursday after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send her nomination to the Senate floor for a final vote. The committee previously blocked President Donald Trump's first choice for the role, Ed Martin, a right-wing podcaster and 'Stop the Steal' organizer with no experience as a prosecutor and a history of controversial statements.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former January 6 defendant now advising justice department's ‘weaponization working group'
A former FBI agent who allegedly shouted 'kill 'em!' at law enforcement officers during the January 6 insurrection is now advising a 'weaponization working group' in the Trump justice department, a sign of the elevated role rioters are playing since they were granted clemency by the president. Jared L Wise has been named an adviser or counselor to Ed Martin, the advocate for January 6ers who was previously acting as US attorney for Washington DC and is now leading the weaponization working group, the New York Times and ABC News reported on Tuesday. The contours of Wise's role are not clear. The move is a further embrace by the Trump administration of those who stormed the US Capitol in 2021 seeking to overturn Trump's electoral loss and shows how fundamentally the justice department has shifted on January 6 since Trump won last November, tailoring itself to his retribution agenda. Related: US Capitol rioter ordered to pay damages for assaulting cop who later died by suicide The justice department's prosecution of Wise was under way when Trump took office in January, so it was one of many cases that were dismissed before a verdict. He had been charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors, and he had pleaded not guilty. On his first day in office, Trump granted clemency to all who were convicted or charged for their roles in the January 6 riot, including those charged with violent acts. The justice department, under the Biden administration, had identified Wise in footage inside the US Capitol and engaging with police among a group of protesters outside. Video footage from a Metropolitan police department body camera showed Wise saying to police officers: 'You guys are disgusting. I'm former – I'm former law enforcement. You're disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You can't see it … Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!' The department's press release on Wise notes that once violence broke out against law enforcement officers in front of him, Wise said, 'Yeah, fuck them! Yeah, kill 'em!' and then, in the direction of people who were attacking the police line: 'Kill 'em! Kill 'em! Kill 'em!' Before attending the January 6 riot, he was an FBI special agent and supervisory special agent from 2004 to 2017, according to the justice department. He was also an operative for the rightwing media outlet Project Veritas, where he was 'assigned to infiltrate teacher unions in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Kentucky', according to the New York Times. The justice department's weaponization working group was set up in February to analyze instances in the previous four years in which 'a department's or agency's conduct appears to have been designed to achieve political objectives or other improper aims rather than pursuing justice or legitimate governmental objectives', according to a memo announcing it. This includes the investigations into Trump, prosecutions of January 6 defendants, anti-abortion protests and supposed anti-Catholic bias. Martin, whose nomination to become the US attorney for DC was withdrawn after it became unclear how he could secure confirmation, is a vocal and frequent advocate for January 6 defendants. Stanley Woodward, who had defended people involved in the insurrection and many others in Trump's orbit over the years, is now in the No 3 position in the justice department, associate attorney general. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fired Justice Department official warns we are "driving straight into an abyss"
A 17-year former Justice Department official is warning of a wave of retribution inside the agency. Patty Hartman, who served as a top public affairs specialist at the FBI and federal prosecutors' offices, told CBS News, "The rules don't exist anymore." Hartman, who was fired Monday via a letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi, is the fourth person connected to the agency's work on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots to be terminated in the past month. "There used to be a line, used to be a very distinct separation between the White House and the Department of Justice, because one should not interfere with the work of the other," Hartman told CBS News. "That line is very definitely gone." Hartman isn't a prosecutor, but worked on the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney's Office public affairs team that distributed news releases about the more than 1,500 Jan. 6 criminal prosecutions. "I am not political. I do not serve a president or a party," she said. "I serve the American people, the Department of Justice and its mission and the citizens in the district where I work. I've been doing that for almost 20 years." The purge of Justice Department employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases began shortly after President Trump's second inauguration, when he installed a former Jan. 6 defense attorney, Ed Martin, as the acting top prosecutor in Washington, D.C. Multiple prosecutors were promptly terminated. The latest wave of firings included Hartman and three more prosecutors who helped handle some of the Jan. 6 cases. She said those firings appear to be a form of retribution from the administration. Mr. Trump and his supporters have downplayed the damage, injuries and trauma of the Capitol siege and have sought to recast convicted rioters as "political prisoners." The mass pardon of nearly all of the approximately 1,500 defendants shuttered the prosecutions in January. Hartman said her firing Monday took her by surprise. Her computer appeared to power itself down while she was in the middle of working on a press release, she said, and then an agency official handed a termination letter bearing Attorney General Pam Bondi's signature. She characterized her dismissal as an indication of a broader destabilization inside the Justice Department and Trump administration. In a social media post this week, she wrote, "We appear to be driving straight into an abyss that holds no memory of what democracy is, was, or should be." "The people in charge who are supposed to protect us — our fellow Americans who we elected, along with those who were appointed, and swore an oath to protect this nation and our Constitution — now use the Constitution as a weapon to suit their own ends. And the most terrifying fact is, their road map is very long," Hartman also wrote. She told CBS News she had been fired without due process and said she's considering a legal challenge over her termination. Hartman said the administration has "just thrown all of the rules out the window, like we are falling into a crevasse or an abyss, and I really, truly hope that the country can pull out of it." One of Hartman's colleagues, who asked for anonymity to avoid incurring retaliation for speaking publicly, told CBS News, "Patty's firing really pisses me off. It's so unconscionably petty and vindictive. Who is the constituency for firing Patty? Even the most rabid Jan. 6 apologists weren't calling for the firing of the woman who wrote the press releases." The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Social media content creator shows his hustle Udemy Is Powering Enterprise AI Transformation Through Skills Debate over Trump plan to increase logging on federal lands
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Former January 6 defendant now advising justice department's ‘weaponization working group'
A former FBI agent who allegedly shouted 'kill 'em!' at law enforcement during the January 6 insurrection is now advising a 'weaponization working group' in the Trump justice department, a sign of the elevated role rioters are playing since they were granted clemency by the president. Jared L Wise has been named an adviser or counselor to Ed Martin, the advocate for January 6ers who was previously acting as US attorney for Washington DC and is now leading the weaponization working group, the New York Times and ABC News reported on Tuesday. The contours of Wise's role are not clear. The move is a further embrace by the Trump administration of those who stormed the US Capitol in 2021 seeking to overturn Trump's electoral loss and shows how fundamentally the justice department has shifted on January 6 since Trump won last November, tailoring itself to his retribution agenda. The justice department's prosecution of Wise was under way when Trump took office in January, so it was one of many cases that were dismissed before a verdict. He had been charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors, and he had pleaded not guilty. On his first day in office, Trump granted clemency to all who were convicted or charged for their roles in the January 6 riot, including those who faced charges of violent acts. The justice department, under the Biden administration, had identified Wise in footage inside the US Capitol and engaging with police among a group of protesters outside. Video footage from a Metropolitan police department body camera showed Wise saying to police officers: 'You guys are disgusting. I'm former – I'm former law enforcement. You're disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You can't see it … Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!' The department's press release on Wise notes that once violence broke out against law enforcement in front of him, Wise said, 'Yeah, fuck them! Yeah, kill 'em!' and then, in the direction of people who were attacking the police line: 'Kill 'em! Kill 'em! Kill 'em!' Prior to attending the January 6 riot, he was an FBI special agent and supervisory special agent from 2004 to 2017, according to the justice department. He was also an operative for the rightwing media outlet Project Veritas, where he was 'assigned to infiltrate teacher unions in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Kentucky', according to the New York Times. The justice department's weaponization working group was set up in February to analyze instances in the prior four years in which 'a department's or agency's conduct appears to have been designed to achieve political objectives or other improper aims rather than pursuing justice or legitimate governmental objectives', according to a memo announcing it. This includes the investigations into Trump, prosecutions of January 6 defendants, anti-abortion protests and supposed anti-Catholic bias. Martin, whose nomination to become the US attorney for DC was withdrawn after it became unclear how he could secure confirmation, is a vocal and frequent advocate for January 6 defendants. Stanley Woodward, who had defended people involved in the insurrection and many others in Trump's orbit over the years, is now in the No 3 position in the justice department, associate attorney general.
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Former January 6 defendant now advising justice department's ‘weaponization working group'
A former FBI agent who allegedly shouted 'kill 'em!' at law enforcement during the January 6 insurrection is now advising a 'weaponization working group' in the Trump justice department, a sign of the elevated role rioters are playing since they were granted clemency by the president. Jared L Wise has been named an adviser or counselor to Ed Martin, the advocate for January 6ers who was previously acting as US attorney for Washington DC and is now leading the weaponization working group, the New York Times and ABC News reported on Tuesday. The contours of Wise's role are not clear. The move is a further embrace by the Trump administration of those who stormed the US Capitol in 2021 seeking to overturn Trump's electoral loss and shows how fundamentally the justice department has shifted on January 6 since Trump won last November, tailoring itself to his retribution agenda. The justice department's prosecution of Wise was under way when Trump took office in January, so it was one of many cases that were dismissed before a verdict. He had been charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors, and he had pleaded not guilty. On his first day in office, Trump granted clemency to all who were convicted or charged for their roles in the January 6 riot, including those who faced charges of violent acts. The justice department, under the Biden administration, had identified Wise in footage inside the US Capitol and engaging with police among a group of protesters outside. Video footage from a Metropolitan police department body camera showed Wise saying to police officers: 'You guys are disgusting. I'm former – I'm former law enforcement. You're disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You can't see it … Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!' The department's press release on Wise notes that once violence broke out against law enforcement in front of him, Wise said, 'Yeah, fuck them! Yeah, kill 'em!' and then, in the direction of people who were attacking the police line: 'Kill 'em! Kill 'em! Kill 'em!' Prior to attending the January 6 riot, he was an FBI special agent and supervisory special agent from 2004 to 2017, according to the justice department. He was also an operative for the rightwing media outlet Project Veritas, where he was 'assigned to infiltrate teacher unions in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Kentucky', according to the New York Times. The justice department's weaponization working group was set up in February to analyze instances in the prior four years in which 'a department's or agency's conduct appears to have been designed to achieve political objectives or other improper aims rather than pursuing justice or legitimate governmental objectives', according to a memo announcing it. This includes the investigations into Trump, prosecutions of January 6 defendants, anti-abortion protests and supposed anti-Catholic bias. Martin, whose nomination to become the US attorney for DC was withdrawn after it became unclear how he could secure confirmation, is a vocal and frequent advocate for January 6 defendants. Stanley Woodward, who had defended people involved in the insurrection and many others in Trump's orbit over the years, is now in the No 3 position in the justice department, associate attorney general.
