The nomination of Ed Martin, President Trump’s controversial pick to be the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, may be in jeopardy as the “Stop the Steal” advocate who backed Jan. 6 rioters struggles to find sufficient Republican support in the Senate.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced Tuesday that he won’t support Martin’s nomination. And with that, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Martin’s nomination may not make it out of the judiciary panel for a floor vote. The committee has 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats, meaning that if everyone votes along party lines and Republicans lose no one else, Martin’s nomination would end in a tie.
“I think that would suggest that he’s not probably going to get out of committee,” Thune told reporters Tuesday.
Tillis told reporters that he “indicated to the White House I wouldn’t support his nomination.”
“Most of my concerns are related to Jan. 6,” Tillis told reporters, adding he has “no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on Jan. 6, and that’s probably where most of the friction was.”
“If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any district except the district where January 6 happened, the protests happened, I’d probably support him,” Tillis said.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, said the “writing’s on the wall” for Martin.
President Trump nominated Martin to run the office that prosecuted more than 1,500 Capitol defendants, although Martin previously worked to defend some of those very same people. Martin has been serving as the District’s top prosecutor in an acting capacity since Inauguration Day.
Martin has said he shares Mr. Trump’s view of the Capitol attack as a “day of love,” and he has already fired some of the prosecutors who handled Jan. 6 cases.
Martin’s term as interim U.S. attorney expires May 20.
Asked by reporters at his weekly news conference later Tuesday whether he would move to discharge Martin from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thune said, “we will cross that bridge if and when we come to it, but it’s ultimately going to be a decision that the Judiciary Committee makes first.”