{"id":37789,"date":"2025-01-27T15:59:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T21:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=37789"},"modified":"2025-01-28T04:02:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T10:02:26","slug":"trumps-new-d-c-prosecutor-launches-review-to-examine-great-failure-of-key-charge-leveled-against-jan-6-defendants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=37789","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s new D.C. prosecutor launches review to examine ‘great failure’ of key charge leveled against Jan. 6 defendants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s top prosecutor for Washington, D.C., told Justice Department colleagues Monday that he is launching a \u201cspecial project\u201d to review the office\u2019s handling of a federal charge brought against many of the 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants who received presidential pardons<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed Martin<\/a>, who became the acting head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia after Trump was inaugurated, said he was appointing two officials to look at the use of an obstruction of justice charge, which the Supreme Court determined had been used too broadly<\/a> against some Jan. 6 defendants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin\u2019s office disbanded the Justice Department\u2019s Capitol Siege Section and moved to dismiss cases against violent Jan. 6 rioters who attacked police officers. He also filed a motion<\/a> <\/strong>last week that implored a judge to drop conditions that would have required some members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group to get court permission before they visit Washington<\/a> or the U.S. Capitol after Trump commuted their Jan. 6 sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow live politics coverage<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin wrote Monday that the two officials he selected would need to issue a preliminary report by Friday, and he asked all employees to pass along “all files, documents, notes, emails and other information” about the use of 18 U.S. Code 1512<\/a>, which prosecutors often refer to as the “1512” charge. Martin referred to the review as “Project 1512” and called it “important work.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously, the use was a great failure of our office \u2014 [Supreme Court] decision \u2014 and we need to get to the bottom of it,\u201d Martin wrote in an email obtained by NBC News that also reminded U.S. attorney\u2019s office workers of the hiring freeze and the Trump administration’s steps ending \u201call DEI efforts.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before he joined the Trump administration, Martin was a \u201cStop the Steal\u201d advocate who spoke at the Capitol on Jan. 5 and was on the Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 riot. He also was on the board of the Patriot Freedom Project, which advocated for Jan. 6 defendants and held fundraisers at Trump\u2019s properties. In addition, he was an attorney for at least three Jan. 6 defendants, and he spread conspiracy theories about the attack on the Capitol<\/a>, falsely claiming that the riot was a setup staged by a person he dubbed “Mr. Coffee.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“January 6th was Staged by Mr. Coffee \ufffd\ufffd,” Martin wrote in 2023<\/a>, referring to an unidentified man who helped set up a nonfunctioning gallows near the Capitol on Jan. 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin was subpoenaed<\/a> by the House Jan. 6 committee, which said it had evidence that he was “involved in the logistical planning” of Trump’s “Stop the Steal\u201d rally on Jan. 6 and that he had \u201cpaid costs associated with vendors hired for that event.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his speech at the Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, Martin said he would fight until his \u201clast breath\u201d to \u201cstop the steal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s top prosecutor for Washington, D.C., told Justice Department colleagues Monday that he is launching a \u201cspecial project\u201d to review the office\u2019s handling of a federal charge brought against many of the 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants who received presidential pardons last week. Ed Martin, who became the acting head of the U.S. Attorney’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2985,1230],"class_list":["post-37789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-prosecutors","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37791,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37789\/revisions\/37791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}