Interim US Attorney for DC Edward Martin Jr orders internal review of office's handling of J6 cases

Interim US attorney for Washington, DC Edward R. Martin Jr. has requested that two top prosecutors in his office conduct an internal review of the department’s handling of Capitol riot cases.

A Monday email to staff, obtained by the Washington Post, stated that Martin had appointed Chief of the Criminal Division Denise Cheung, and Chief of the Fraud, Public Corruption and Civil Rights section Denise Cheung to lead a "special project" investigating the over 250 cases in which the office had charged over 250 people with obstructing an official proceeding of Congress. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the statute was too broadly applied to the cases. 

Martin wrote in the email, "Obviously, the use was a great failure of our office … and we need to get to the bottom of it." Martin expects a preliminary report by Friday. "Please deliver to Jonathan and/or Denise all information you have related to the use of 1512 charges including all files, documents, notes, emails and other information." The 1512 number refers to the obstruction statute’s section number in the federal code, the outlet reported. 

Martin was temporarily appointed to the post on January 20 for 120 days, but told employees at an introductory staff meeting that he expects to serve in the role permanently, a person in attendance and others briefed on the meeting told the Post. Before his time in the role, Martin was a defense attorney for three January 6 defendants.

Martin has closed the office’s Capitol breach prosecution unit and removed its chief Gregg Rosen.

On his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order titled "Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government," under which he ordered the Attorney General, in consultation with other department and agency heads, "take appropriate action to review the activities of all departments and agencies exercising civil or criminal enforcement authority of the United States" over the last four years and "identify any instances where a department’s or agency’s conduct appears to have been contrary to the purposes and policies of this order."

Also on his first day in office, Trump signed pardons for around 1,500 January 6 defendants. Speaking at Capital One Arena ahead of the signing, Trump told the crowd, "we’re going to release our great hostages" that "didn’t do stuff wrong."