By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s top prosecutor in Washington is facing a complaint alleging he violated professional conduct rules when he asked a judge to dismiss criminal charges against his own client over his role in the U.S. Capitol riot.
Activist legal group the 65 Project filed a bar complaint on Thursday against Edward Martin, interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, in Missouri, where he is licensed to practice law, a day after Reuters reported the potential conflict.
Martin last month asked a judge to drop charges against a man who took part in the January 6, 2021, Capitol assault whom he also represented as a defense attorney, after Trump on his first day in office granted clemency to all the nearly 1,600 people charged with playing a role in the riot.
Lawyers generally are prohibited from taking both sides in the same case and U.S. Justice Department regulations require lawyers to step aside from cases involving their former clients for at least a year.
State rules in Missouri, where Martin is licensed, also bar government lawyers from handling cases involving their clients without written consent.
“When President Trump appointed Mr. Martin to serve as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Mr. Martin became duty-bound under the rules of professional conduct to abstain from any role in his former clients’ criminal cases,” said Michael Teter, managing director of the 65 Project, which has brought bar complaints against Trump-affiliated lawyers, in a statement.
“Instead, even while still counsel of record for the defendant, Mr. Martin appeared on behalf of the United States government. His actions violate the rules of professional conduct and he must be held to account.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment about the group’s bar complaint, which was filed with the chief disciplinary counsel’s office in Missouri.
A copy was also sent to the office that handles attorney discipline in Washington, where Martin is also licensed.
Martin, who has said he was present outside the Capitol during the siege, also represented two other people found guilty of taking part in the attempt to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat. He has faulted the Justice Department for what he described as misconduct in investigating the attack.
Before becoming Washington’s top prosecutor, he appeared as an attorney for three people convicted of participating in the riot, according to court records.
Two of those cases ended before Trump took office; the third, against Joseph Padilla, was still ongoing on January 21 when Martin’s office filed a motion bearing his name asking a court to drop the charges.
On Wednesday, Martin sent an office-wide email seen by Reuters in which he said he had “stopped all involvement” in the cases more than a year and a half ago, that he had handled them pro bono, and said he was “under the impression that I was off the cases.”
He said the U.S. Attorney’s career ethics lawyer asked him about the cases last week and complained that it “immediately leaked to the media.” This leak, he said, was both “personally insulting” and professionally “unacceptable.”
A private spokesperson for Martin also told Reuters on Wednesday that he was in compliance with the requirements for his position.
On Wednesday night after Reuters published its story, Martin filed a motion to withdraw as counsel from Padilla’s case, saying he no longer represented him.
That filing was rejected on Thursday, however, after the court faulted him for failing to renew his district court membership and ordered him to remedy the error by Feb. 12.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)
