Trump gives up on Ed Martin for D.C. U.S. attorney after GOP senators buck the pick

President Trump on Thursday said he is dropping the nomination of Ed Martin to serve as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia after a key Senate Republican said his all-out defense of the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters disqualifies him for the role.

Mr. Martin’s confirmation was doomed.

“We will have somebody else that will be great,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“It was disappointing, I’ll be honest,” Mr. Trump said. “A lot of people were disappointed, but that’s the way it works sometimes. He wasn’t rejected, but we felt it would be hard, and we have somebody else that we’ll be announcing over the next few days who is going to be great.”

Mr. Trump said he will find another role for Mr. Martin in his administration, possibly at the Justice Department. It would have to be a position that does not require Senate approval, given the opposition to Mr. Martin on Capitol Hill.

He praised Mr. Martin as “unbelievable,” crediting him with lowering crime during his tenure as the interim U.S. attorney in the District.

Mr. Martin appeared to take the yanking of his nomination in stride. He posted on X an AI image of himself as the Pope with the caption, “Plot Twist,” a joking reference to the selection of a new head of the Catholic Church.

Others, however, were more frustrated. Mike Davis, head of the Article III Project, which advocates for conservative judges, vented about his disappointment. He called Mr. Martin “a good friend and a good man.”

“Too many of our weak Senate Republican sisters are offended by Ed’s political work. So Trump will have Ed break more china elsewhere,” he wrote.

When asked about Mr. Trump’s decision to nix the nomination, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, told The Washington Times that he hadn’t yet heard it was pulled.

GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said on Tuesday that he won’t give his vote of approval for Mr. Martin on the Judiciary Committee. Without it, Republicans and Democrats will remain deadlocked on his nomination, imperiling his confirmation by the full Senate.

The senator, who is facing a difficult reelection campaign, told reporters that he couldn’t back Mr. Martin because of his views about the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Mr. Martin, who served as a defense attorney for many of those charged, dismissed the Justice Department’s remaining cases as soon as he took on the interim post. He also fired or demoted nearly two dozen Justice Department lawyers who prosecuted Jan. 6 cases.

Mr. Tillis said he understood Mr. Martin’s concern that some of those who took part in the riot were prosecuted and punished too severely for their actions, but said Mr. Martin’s total dismissal of the cases went too far.

“I need somebody in that role who believes that every single person that came into this building illegally should have suffered some consequence,” Mr. Tillis said. “Probably not three or 10 years in prison, but they all should have had a fine. And they all should have had a penalty. And that’s where we probably had our biggest disagreement.”

There were other signs that Mr. Martin’s nomination was falling short. Mr. Grassley did not include a nomination vote on this week’s calendar as expected.

Mr. Trump appointed Mr. Martin to serve as an interim U.S. attorney, but that appointment expires on May 20. After that, if a new U.S. attorney is not confirmed, the 24 judges on the U.S.  District Court in Washington would select a replacement until Mr. Trump names a new nominee.

Democrats had raised several concerns about Mr. Martin. Beyond his defense of Jan. 6 rioters, they also criticized his lack of prosecutorial experience for the job of chief federal prosecutor in Washington. They also said he used his position to threaten Democrats and objected to his comparing former President Biden to Adolf Hitler.

Other Republican senators said they might oppose him on the floor. Sen. Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota told CNN this week that Mr. Martin is “not probably going to get out of committee.”

Mr. Trump told reporters he’s tried working the phones but has too many things going on to focus on Mr. Martin’s nomination. One of those things was a massive trade deal with the United Kingdom that he announced Thursday.

“I have so many different things that I’m doing now with trade. You know, I can only lift that little phone so many times a day,” he said.