Far-right Trump attorney claims probing him is unconstitutional attack on president
A controversial far-right lawyer in the Trump administration is claiming executive privilege to try to stymie a misconduct investigation, left-leaning elections site Democracy Docket reported on Wednesday.
"In a wild new legal filing this week, Martin lashed out against the D.C. Disciplinary Counsel, which polices attorney misconduct in the nation’s capital, alleging that its ongoing ethics case against him violates Trump’s authority," reported Jacob Knutson. "Martin’s astounding arguments appear to claim that the president and federal attorneys are indistinguishable and that any attempt to hold Department of Justice (DOJ) officials accountable for misconduct amounts to an unconstitutional attack on the president’s authority."
Martin, a former GOP activist in Missouri with ties to the "Stop the Steal" rallies around the 2020 election, was Trump's first choice to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, despite having essentially no professional experience as a prosecutor.
During his brief tenure in that role, he triggered a firestorm of controversy by sending letters threatening vague criminal action against a number of individuals and organizations that had earned ire from Trump and his inner circle, including one to Georgetown University law school. Ultimately, Republicans in the Senate rejected him for a permanent role; Trump replaced him with longtime Fox News pundit and former New York judge Jeanine Pirro, moving Martin into an office that advises Trump on clemency.
That wasn't the end of the issue, however, because Martin's threatening letters are the subject of the D.C. Disciplinary Counsel investigation, which could ultimately lead to Martin's disbarment.
"Among his bizarre, scattershot claims, Martin asserted in the filing that Hamilton Fox, a prominent lawyer who heads D.C.’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel, could not investigate him because Martin — as acting U.S. attorney — had already opened a probe into Fox," said the Democracy Docket report. "As evidence of his probe into the Disciplinary Counsel, Martin included a letter he allegedly sent to Fox in February 2025 demanding information about how the D.C. Bar handles investigations and actions against attorneys practicing in the district."