Controversial pro-Trump attorney Ed Martin leaving administration

Washington — Ed Martin, the pro-Trump lawyer who has been at the center of several controversies during his time at the Justice Department, is departing the Trump administration, the president announced in a post on Truth Social Friday afternoon.

Martin previously served as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia during a tenure that was marked by turmoil. He later served as the head of then-Attorney General Pam Bondi's "Weaponization Working Group" and has most recently served as pardon attorney , an advisory position in the department that involves reviewing clemency applications and making recommendations.

Martin was President Trump's first pick to be the top federal prosecutor in D.C., but he failed to garner enough support from the Republican-controlled Senate to win permanent confirmation. Senators took issue with his advocacy on behalf of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

"Ed Martin has been with me from the very beginning, and done an incredible job as an Attorney, Director of the Weaponization Working Group, and the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia," Mr. Trump wrote , adding he is "leaving to go outside to fight Legal Battles for the upcoming Midterm Election, and the Presidential Election of 2028."

Under Martin's watch as interim U.S. attorney, more than a dozen probationary federal prosecutors who had handled investigations into the Jan. 6 attack were fired. Martin, who was involved with the "Stop the Steal" movement in the wake of Mr. Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential election, also ordered prosecutors to launch an internal inquiry into how they decided to charge some Jan. 6 defendants with felony obstruction charges.

The top criminal chief in his office resigned after alleging he had pressured her to launch a criminal investigation and freeze assets belonging to a grant awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency during the Biden administration — even though there was no evidence of a crime.

Later, he also demoted a number of prosecutors in the office to entry-level roles, angering staff and helping to spark a mass exodus of career prosecutors from the office.

Martin made waves by frequently announcing the targets of his investigations on social media, in violation of the Justice Department's manual governing the rules for prosecutors.

Career lawyers blocked him from opening a criminal investigation into Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer over political comments he made in 2020 in which Schumer said that several conservative Supreme Court justices would "pay the price" over actions that scaled back abortion rights, sources said.

His targeting of Georgetown University Law Center later earned him an ethics complaint by D.C.'s Office of Disciplinary Counsel. Martin threatened to cease hiring the school's graduates if it did not abandon its policies on diversity, equity and inclusion.

He was also separately deputized as a special assistant U.S. attorney and tasked with helping lead mortgage-related investigations into Democratic Sen.