WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� , a loyal White House ally who held multiple Justice Department posts despite unconventional tactics that , is leaving President Donald Trump’s administration, the Republican president said Friday.
Trump said in a social media post that Martin is leaving his role as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney to 鈥渇ight Legal Battles鈥� surrounding this year’s midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election.
鈥淚 know he will do an outstanding job, ensure Free, Fair, and Honest Elections, and strongly advance our Constitutional Rights,鈥� Trump wrote.
Martin has been a controversial Trump administration figure last year as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, where he oversaw the dismissal of Jan. 6 cases . Trump later for the job over bipartisan concerns about his lack of prosecutorial experience and support for rioters who .
He then moved to Justice Department headquarters as pardon attorney and director of a group tasked with scrutinizing actions by President Joe Biden’s administration that Republicans say unfairly targeted conservatives. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi also named him a special attorney to help conduct mortgage fraud investigations and .
He often raised eyebrows during his tenure. In one instance, while conducting his mortgage fraud investigation into James, he sent 鈥渁s an act of good faith.鈥� He also posed for photos outside her Brooklyn home.
The Justice Department’s after the judge found that another prosecutor who brought the charges was illegally appointed.
Martin was later sidelined amid clashes with Justice Department leadership and was removed as head of the 鈥淲eaponization Working Group,鈥� though he kept his title as pardon attorney.
In a social media post Friday, Attorney General Todd Blanche called Martin a 鈥減atriot who loves this nation.鈥� Martin didn’t immediately respond to a message Friday, but on his X account he reposted Trump’s announcement with the message: 鈥淧roud to serve. Fight Fight Fight.鈥�
Before his nomination as D.C. U.S. attorney, Martin was a leader of Trump鈥檚 鈥淪top the Steal鈥� movement. He spoke at a rally in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, and later served on the board of a nonprofit that raised money to support Capitol riot defendants and their families.
Trump鈥檚 post is the latest sign of his obsession with voting in the upcoming midterm elections, which will determine control of the U.S. House and Senate for the final two years of his presidency.
His administration has fixated on messaging around noncitizen voting, that Trump falsely insists is a widespread source of fraud. His Department of Justice has been trying to gather data to hunt for noncitizens, and he has been pushing Congress to pass a bill that would to vote in time for the November elections.
The FBI has obtained from the most populous counties in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia and Michigan without saying what it was searching for. Trump also has issued two executive orders seeking to take control of certain election operations, even though the Constitution grants states and Congress the authority to determine election rules.
Democratic state officials have been raising alarms about the possibility of the administration deploying federal to polling places or ordering the to voting locations or election offices, although administration officials have said they have no such plans.
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