Cheers for Senator Thom Tillis

Susan Estrich on May 8, 2025

On Tuesday, Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina and a key vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that he would not support the nomination of one of the most over-the-top Trumpers (I know, that's saying a lot) Ed Martin to be the U.S. attorney for Washington. Tillis told reporters that he had let the White House know that he could not support Martin because as a lawyer in private practice he had defended Jan. 6 rioters.

Now, I'm not one to judge a lawyer by their clients or disqualify those who have represented clients I don't like, but in Martin's case, it's different. He is Mr. Jan. 6. An outspoken 2020 election denier, he was on the Capitol grounds when the rioters stormed the Capitol; as interim U.S. attorney, he fired the prosecutors who worked on the Jan. 6 prosecutions.

He loves to write threatening letters, as he did to the dean of Georgetown Law School threatening not to hire anyone from that outstanding law school until they dropped all DEI policies and courses. Or consider the letter he sent to some of the world's most prestigious medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, questioning their bias, demanding answers to questions and reminding them of their tax-exempt status. Did I mention that he has no prosecutorial experience, has never taken a case to trial, is better known as a political operative than a lawyer?

He is reportedly currently pursuing an inquiry into whether President Joe Biden was mentally competent to issue the pardons he did before he left office. The New York Times has reported that Martin began sending letters two months ago to Biden's White House aides, including Jeffrey D. Zients, the former chief of staff, as well as recipients of Biden's pardons, such as his brother James Biden and sister-in-law Sara Biden, questioning the former president's mental competence. He told Elon Musk that he would "pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people ... if people are discovered to have broken the law or even acted simply unethically, we will investigate them and we will chase them to the end of the Earth to hold them accountable."

His brief tenure as interim U.S. attorney is a case study of the partisan weaponization of one of the most important prosecutor's offices in the country. ProPublica, in an in-depth investigation of his past and his reign, shows him to be abusing his power to open political investigations, firing prosecutors who refused to do so and later having to admit in court that there was no basis for the investigation.

It's obvious why Trump loves him, which he reportedly does.

He is, no doubt, one of the lawyers the president was thinking about when he admitted ignorance of the due process clause or his oath of office, relegating such niceties to lawyers like Martin.

The point is, because one Republican senator stood up and said no, the nomination is not going to get out of committee. Trump will have to find another place, that doesn't require Senate confirmation, for his attack dog. This man will not be one of the most powerful prosecutors in the country, with the power to destroy that office.

One senator can make a difference. One who is willing to stand up can stop the lunacy. The president may pretend to forget his duty to uphold the Constitution. The members of the Senate can't get away with that. Republicans did not do their jobs in confirming Trump's Cabinet appointees. That is how we ended up with a Cabinet of Clowns, with a Defense Department in chaos, with a Justice Department that has lost its independence and with a Homeland Security Secretary who cannot even keep track of her own handbag stuffed with cash. Enough is enough. Ed Martin has shown himself totally unqualified to be the U.S. attorney of D.C. Thank you to Thom Tillis for recognizing that. If the nomination is not dead yet, it should be.

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