(WASHINGTON) — Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a message to staff on Friday that he’s “expanded” the scope of his investigation into the office’s handling of cases stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — and likened them to the government’s internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, according to an email obtained by ABC News.
Martin, whose nomination is still pending confirmation by the Senate, has dubbed his investigation the “1512 Project,” referring to the felony obstruction charge used against hundreds of Capitol attack defendants that was later narrowed by the Supreme Court.
“We have contacted lawyers, staff and judges about this — and sought their feedback,” Martin wrote in his email. “One called the bi-partisan rejection of the 1512 charge the ‘greatest failure of legal judgement since FDR and his Attorney General put American citizens of Japanese descent in prison camps — and seized their property.’ I agree and that’s why we continue to look at who ordered the 1512 and why. A lot to do.”
Fifteen of the 16 judges at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, including several Trump appointees, previously upheld the application of the 1512 charge for Jan. 6 defendants whose conduct, prosecutors argued, crossed the line beyond simple misdemeanor trespassing offenses.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, also joined Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in dissenting from the court’s majority opinion to say that the obstruction of an official proceeding charge was properly applied to describing Congress’ certification of the presidential election.
Martin further told staff in his email that he has “been asked to look into leaks that took place during the January 6th prosecutions,” which he claimed were “used by the media and partisans as misinformation.”
“It was bad all around. (One participant said she believed the media was in a frenzy for attention like during the OJ Simpson trial),” Martin said.
The email is just the latest in a series of controversial actions by Martin that has thrown one of the most important and high-profile U.S. attorney’s offices in the country into turmoil.
Martin, a “Stop the Steal” promoter who represented several defendants charged in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, has leveled numerous public threats to investigate Democratic lawmakers and sent menacing letters to critics of President Donald Trump.
Among those who have received letters from Martin in which he suggested their actions were under investigation by his office are Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va.
Earlier this week, ABC News confirmed Martin sent an informal letter to President Joe Biden’s younger brother James Biden, inquiring about the sweeping preemptive pardons he and his wife received in the waning hours of the Biden presidency.
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