Remember how good it felt to witness the rare occurrence of one of President Donald Trump’s immensely unqualified appointees proving to be too much even for Republicans?
Seeing Ed Martin, Trump’s pick for U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., get booted for being too problematic, even for Republicans, was a delight—albeit a short-lived delight, considering that he’s now the Department of Justice’s new pardon attorney.
Right out of the gate, Martin is poised to run the pardon office just like he did the U.S. Attorney's Office during his short tenure: by attacking Trump’s political enemies.
Martin’s first priority, he announced on Tuesday, is to review pardons issued by President Joe Biden at the end of his term.
Trump already tried claiming that Biden’s pardons were illegal because he signed them with an autopen, which Trump also uses to sign pardons. This led to a White House spokesperson saying that Trump’s use of an autopen is fine because “we may use it, as an example, to send some young person a letter, because it’s nice,” but for Biden it was “disgraceful.”
With Trump’s autopen gambit failing, the attempt to reverse Biden’s pardons falls on Martin, who is as lacking in scruples as he is relevant legal experience. But perhaps it’s that lack of experience that leads him to believe that it’s possible to undo presidential pardons.
The Constitution gives the president broad pardon powers but contains no mechanism for rescinding those pardons. Martin can scrutinize Biden’s pardons all he wants, but that isn’t going to change anything.
Insurrectionists attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
But if any pardons deserve scrutiny, it’s the ones of which Martin is most fond: Trump’s mass pardons for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, including those who attacked police officers. Since some of Martin’s meager legal experience included representing some of those rioters, it isn’t surprising that he’s on board with their pardons.
Martin’s complete lack of a spine also means that he likely won’t ever push back on Trump’s habit of essentially selling pardons to big donors and crypto scammers. Nor would he be unhappy about restoring gun rights to noted anti-Semite Mel Gibson. In fact, Martin was only given his new gig because Trump fired the previous pardon attorney for refusing to sign off on restoring Gibson’s gun rights.
The worst people never truly leave Trump’s orbit, no matter what happens. That’s because what Trump values most isn’t competency. It isn’t even loyalty, though he does have a mob boss attitude. Above everything else, Trump most values malleability, a willingness to undertake any action, no matter how improper or illegal it might be.
That’s undoubtedly why someone like Jeffrey Clark is back in the federal government in a high-powered role. Yes, that Jeffrey Clark, the lawyer who headed the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division during Trump’s first term, but who is better known for helping him try to overturn the 2020 election.
In fact, Clark’s efforts netted him a recommendation for disbarment from the D.C. bar and criminal charges in Georgia. But Clark doesn’t need to practice law any longer, since Trump just tapped him to run the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. There, Clark will have the power to advance Trump’s regulatory agenda, or lack thereof.
Like Clark, Martin is only really useful as an attack dog. He’s an amoral person chosen not for his ability but for his willingness to weaponize a government office. And for that, he’s the perfect choice.
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