WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will nominate a new candidate to serve as Washington, D.C.’s top federal prosecutor, after his first pick Ed Martin, who holds the job on an interim basis, failed to garner enough support to advance in the U.S. Senate.
“I was disappointed. A lot of people were disappointed, but that’s the way it works sometimes,” Trump said at an event at the White House to announce an initial trade pact with the United Kingdom. “We have somebody else that we’ll be announcing over the next two days who’s going to be great.”
A spokesperson for Martin’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A source close to the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this week said the committee would not move forward with a vote before Martin’s interim term expires on May 20.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who sits on the committee, appeared to deal Martin’s nomination a fatal blow when he told reporters at the Capitol that he could not support him because of Martin’s views about the January 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters.
Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the panel, said he was “relieved” that the nomination was withdrawn and that “Martin’s record made it clear that he does not have the temperament or judgment” for the top U.S. law enforcement job for the nation’s capital.
Martin faced opposition over his conduct in office, political advocacy and support for people who took part in the U.S. Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.
His tenure has been marked by Trump’s sweeping pardons for nearly all of the January 6 participants, firings and demotions of career prosecutors who worked on those investigations and unusual public threats to investigate people – including members of Congress – who have opposed the Trump administration’s agenda.
Martin previously defended three former January 6 defendants in court and was a supporter of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen through voter fraud.
He also faced criticism from Democrats over his ties to Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, an Army reservist convicted of storming the Capitol whom prosecutors described as a Nazi sympathizer, a claim Hale-Cusanelli’s lawyer denied.
California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, who placed a hold on Martin’s nomination, said on Thursday that Martin had abused his position.
“Ed Martin is unfit to practice law, let alone serve as a United States Attorney,” he said in a statement.
“I will be watching closely to see whom the President nominates next to serve as the U.S. Attorney for D.C.”
Trump did not say who he would name for the U.S. Attorney role instead.
Names that had been floated previously as possible candidates have included Sam Ramer, the current general counsel at the FBI, and defense attorney John Irving, who worked at the Environmental Protection Agency during Trump’s first term.
Another name that has come up in the past has been Charles “Cully” Stimson, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation who previously worked at the Pentagon and also has prior experience as a federal prosecutor.
It was also unclear what is next for Martin. Trump said he would consider giving him another role in the administration, potentially in the Department of Justice.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Sarah N. Lynch; additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Deepa Babington)
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