What The Hell America!

Sargent: Well, I’m certainly celebrating it. I hope it lasts. We should clarify that right now, the opposition from Tillis, who’s a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, means Ed Martin’s nomination can’t get out of the committee for the time being. And other GOP senators are suggesting it might not be able to happen at all. While that could always change, for now he looks like he’s in real trouble. But Kristy, let’s step back. Can you tell us more broadly a little bit about the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington, D.C., what its role is, and why it matters so much for the rule of law?

Parker: Sure. So there are 93 or maybe 94 U.S. attorney’s offices in the country that are arms of the Department of Justice, but they are very individually important everywhere. They are federal law enforcements in their individual jurisdictions, and they are primarily responsible for executing the laws and enforcing the criminal laws in their jurisdictions. While all of them are important, some of them have more prominence than others. And certainly, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is a very important one because it is the one that is in the seat of our government. Lots of cases are going to come through that office: national security related cases, cases relating to operations of the federal government, complex criminal cases that you wouldn’t necessarily see on a day-to-day basis in some of the other offices. So it has always performed an outsized role in the constellation of U.S. attorney’s offices and is considered one of the most prominent presidentially appointed positions outside of Main Justice.

Sargent: Which I think really gets at the nub of the story. Beyond Martin’s insurrectionism, he’s also used this very powerful office—which again, he’s interim—to threaten Trump’s enemies. He threatened an investigation of Chuck Schumer, though he subsequently backed off of that. He also threatened to investigate the law firm Covington & Burling for giving legal advice to Jack Smith. Kristy, can you explain why that’s appalling public conduct in the U.S. attorney?