Given Ed Martin’s recent record as the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., it was difficult to imagine how he could become even more controversial. But a new Washington Post report makes matters worse for the hyper-partisan Trump loyalist and former “Stop the Steal” organizer.
Martin is now interim U.S. attorney for D.C. and Trump’s pick to serve full time in the role. But as a conservative activist and former Missouri Republican official, he appeared more than 150 times on [the Russian state television network RT] and Sputnik — networks funded and directed by the Russian government — as a guest commentator from August 2016 to April 2024, according to a search of their websites and the Internet Archive’s database of television broadcasts.
What makes a story like this so striking is that it’s really made up of three overlapping problems.
The first is that Martin agreed to appear more than 150 times on Russian propaganda outlets.
The second is what Martin said during those on-air appearances: The Republican lawyer apparently had a knack for offering commentary that aligned with Kremlin talking points, including telling one host that there was “no evidence” of a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s borders the week before the Russian military crossed those borders and began a war in Ukraine.
But every bit as important, if not more so, is the third problem: As part of his presidential nomination to serve as the U.S. attorney in one of the nation’s most important prosecutorial offices, Martin was required to disclose these media appearances to the Senate Judiciary Committee — and according to the Post’s report, at least initially, he did not. (The article has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News.)
“Martin’s office did not initially respond last week to questions about his appearances on RT and Sputnik, including why he did not disclose them to the Senate or whether he was compensated for them,” the Post added. The report went on to note that his spokesperson said Martin sent senators “a supplemental letter” disclosing the appearances he failed to mention earlier.
On Monday, a group of former Jan. 6 prosecutors and conservative attorneys asked a disciplinary board to investigate Martin, arguing that Trump’s right-wing nominee — who has no prosecutorial experience — has a “fundamental misunderstanding of the role of a federal prosecutor.” The letter, addressed to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel at the U.S. District Court of Appeals, said Martin’s actions “threaten to undermine the integrity of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the legal profession in the District of Columbia.”
Two days later, Martin’s nomination suddenly looks even worse.








