DOJ ‘weaponization’ group will shame individuals it can’t charge with crimes, new head says

WASHINGTON — The conservative activist named by President Donald Trump as the head of the Justice Department’s “Weaponization Working Group” said Tuesday he planned to “name” and “shame” individuals the department determines it is unable to charge with crimes, in what would amount to a major departure from longstanding Justice Department protocols.

Ed Martin described himself at a press conference as the “captain” of the group that is investigating prosecutors who launched past investigations into Trump and his allies.

“There are some really bad actors, some people that did some really bad things to the American people. And if they can be charged, we’ll charge them. But if they can’t be charged, we will name them,” Martin said. “And we will name them, and in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are ashamed. And that’s a fact. That’s the way things work. And so that’s, that’s how I believe the job operates.”

During Trump’s first tenure, the justification given for Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey was that Comey had given a press conference in which he released “derogatory information” about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“Derogatory information sometimes is disclosed in the course of criminal investigations and prosecutions, but we never release it gratuitously,” then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote in a memo, adding that he believed Comey had given a “textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do.”

Martin’s remarks came on his last full day as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia on Tuesday. Trump announced last week that he was naming Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as interim U.S. attorney following Martin’s 120-day tenure, instead making Martin the pardon attorney, associate deputy attorney general, and director of the “Weaponization Working Group” that Attorney General Pam Bondi established at the Justice Department in response to one of Trump’s executive orders.

That group is due to examine work including that of former Special Counsel Jack Smith; any federal cooperation with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who prosecuted Trump’s hush money case, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a civil case against the Trump Organization; the Justice Department’s handling of cases related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack; and criminal prosecutions of anti-abortion activists, among other issues.

“When it comes to the problem of weaponization, the first part of it must be transparency,” Martin said. “We have to show our fellow Americans what went on, because when you hide it and then you prosecute, you look like your target. That’s what the Biden administration, they didn’t tell you what they were doing they just targeted people.” 

Justice Department protocols state that officials generally shouldn’t confirm the existence of or otherwise comment on ongoing investigations. Martin said it was important to get “the truth” out when asked whether his past comments — and the plans he laid out on Tuesday — would run afoul of those protocols

“I will say that the prosecutor’s role, and at this moment in our history, is to make clear what the truth is and to get that out,” Martin said. “It can’t be that the system is stifling the truth from coming out because of some procedure.”

Martin said he would have a “more public-facing” role as director of the Weaponization Working Group. 

“When I was asked to switch over here, I was told, you know, this job, you need to be out more and talk about what’s going on. So I think we’ll be a little bit more outward facing in terms of talking about what’s happening,” Martin said. 

Martin had no prosecutorial experience when Trump named him to the U.S. attorney position on Inauguration Day, the same day the president mass-pardoned Jan. 6 defendants. Soon, some prosecutors who worked on Capitol attack cases were fired, Martin opened a probe into the office’s handling of an obstruction charge used against some of the rioters, and Martin demoted others who played a key role in the prosecutions.