Wannabe Gestapo “Eagle” Ed Martin is making a name for himself with the DOGE Führer.
The acting head of the US Attorney’s Office in DC has informed the president’s biggest donor that he will hunt down anyone who behaved illegally or even unethically and “chase them to the end of the Earth.”
“Noone is above the law,” he preened in illiterate ecstasy.
It’s a bizarre flex for a prosecutor who just dismissed a case against his “former” client — although he’d failed to withdraw his appearance. Presumably Martin will not be chasing himself to the “end of the Earth” for ethical lapses.
But Martin isn’t just swearing fealty to Musk “via X only.” He’s also threatening Democratic politicians for speech he doesn’t like.
Here he is shitposting at Rep. Robert Garcia because the California Congressman had the temerity to say on TV that Americans want Democrats to “bring actual weapons to a bar fight.”
“This sounds to some like a threat to Mr. Musk – an appointed representative of President Donald Trump who you call a ‘dick’ – and government staff who work for him,” Martin blustered. “Their concerns have led to this inquiry.”
(Private prison owners must be salivating at the prospect of arresting everyone who calls Elon Musk a dick.)
Martin, who attended the protest at the Capitol on January 6, has a long history of confusion about actual threats.
At 2:57pm on January 6, rioters were inside both chambers of Congress, the members had all been evacuated, Ashli Babbit had just been shot, Vice President Pence was in hiding, and the crowd was demanding that police hand over then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But Martin wasn’t done. According to the Washington Post, he’s just launched Operation Whirlwind, so named for an ill-advised comment by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in 2020 warning Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh that “You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
Schumer immediately apologized and insisted that he had not been threatening the justices. And Trump says ten menacing things online before breakfast. Nonetheless, Martin sent a letter to Senator Schumer demanding that he explain himself, and then followed up with a missive to all staff promising to “protect DOGE.”
Surely they’ll get right on that after they get through investigating their own colleagues for prosecuting January 6 rioters.
The staff may be feeling extra anxious this week, since the departure of Denise Cheung, a 24-year DOJ veteran who until Tuesday served as head of the criminal division at the DC US Attorney’s Office. Cheung quit rather than order Citibank to freeze $20 billion of EPA funds disbursed during the Biden administration based on a bullshit demand from Emil Bove that she dummy up a pretextual criminal investigation.
The issue appears to have something to do with a claim by EPA administrator Lee Zeldin that the Biden administration parked $20 billion of gold bars with a “Stacey Abrams’ Connected Group.”
But Cheung was not convinced that there was probable cause to seize the funds.
“When I explained that the quantum of evidence did not support that action, you stated that you believed that there was sufficient evidence,” she wrote in a letter obtained by Politico. “I still do not believe that there is sufficient evidence to issue the letter you described.”
All of this may look to an outside observer like an office careening into chaos under a lawyer with all the understanding of the First Amendment as a member of the Schutzstaffel. But apparently it’s exactly what the president ordered, since he’s now nominated Martin to head the office permanently.
Earlier: Turning Over U.S. Attorney’s Office To Conspiracy Theorist Working Out As Expected
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
