The interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia may have his sights set on taking some form of legal action against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) over widely criticized remarks he made about a pair of U.S. Supreme Court justices that sounded to many like a threat.
On Friday, Edward R. Martin, Jr. dismissed roughly 30 federal prosecutors who had been working on Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot cases over the past four years. The move is part of a broader effort to overhaul Washington’s top prosecutor’s office while preparing to expand its investigations to include leading Democratic figures and former Justice Department officials, sources close to the interim U.S. attorney told the Washington Post.
He also appeared determined to scrutinize the nation’s leading Democrat by sending what he called a “letter of inquiry” to Schumer regarding his eventually retracted remarks at a March 2020 rally, in which he claimed that two of Trump’s recently appointed Supreme Court justices, Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh, would “pay the price” if they ruled against Roe v. Wade.
“We take threats against public officials very seriously. I look forward to your cooperation,” Martin wrote Schumer in a Jan. 21 letter obtained by The Post.
Documents from Martin and acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove—emailed around 5 p.m. and viewed by The Washington Post—reveal that the former federal prosecutors were placed on probationary status after being shifted from temporary to full-time roles following Election Day, a situation now under investigation by the Trump administration.
