Chances are, most Americans are unfamiliar with Ed Martin, the man Donald Trump and his team tapped to serve as the interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. The public might, however, be more familiar with his work: Martin is a conservative activist who served on the board of a group supporting Jan. 6 criminal defendants and is considered a prominent member of the “Stop the Steal” movement.
This same prosecutor has also now told his new colleagues at the Justice Department that he’s launching a “special project” — to be known as “Project 1512” — that will review the prosecutions of Jan. 6 rioters. NBC News reported:
[Martin] 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 against some Jan. 6 defendants. … 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, which prosecutors often refer to as the ‘1512’ charge.
NBC News spoke to a former Jan. 6 prosecutor who said the investigation sounded like it would be “totally frivolous” and said it would “divert resources” within the office that could be used instead on keeping the nation’s capital safe by prosecuting crimes.
What’s more, there’s a broader fear that an examination along these lines will mean targeting prosecutors who charged Jan. 6 rioters.
But stepping back, it’s worth appreciating the degree to which these developments are at odds with the message many Republicans seem eager to present to the public.
In the immediate aftermath of the president issuing scandalous pardons for Jan. 6 criminals — including violent felons who assaulted police officers — many GOP leaders responded to questions with an evasive, seemingly forward-looking answer. Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, his party’s new Senate majority leader, said, “We’re looking at the future, not the past.” His counterpart on the other side of Capitol Hill, House Speaker Mike Johnson, similarly told reporters, “We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking forward.”
It remains a deeply flawed position for a variety of reasons, but it’s also a talking point for which Trump has no use. Two days after congressional Republicans tried to leave Jan. 6 in the nation’s rearview mirror, the president told reporters he would “certainly” be open to meeting personally — perhaps at the White House — with some of the Jan. 6 criminals he set free.
Two days after that, at an event in Las Vegas, Trump boasted that he was “very proud“ of his Jan. 6 pardons.
The Republican’s administration, meanwhile, also continues to focus on the insurrectionist attack on the Capitol, not only by way of Martin’s investigation, but also overhauling online databases related to Jan. 6 crimes.
“We’re looking forward,” the House speaker told reporters last week. Trump has effectively responded, “What do you mean, ‘we’?”
