Trump replaces controversial U.S. attorney pick Ed Martin: "Disappointing"
/ CBS News
Washington — President Trump announced Thursday he will replace interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin, his controversial pick to be the top prosecutor in the District of Columbia.
Mr. Trump later named Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to the role.
Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Martin appeared to lack enough support in the Senate needed for confirmation and he hoped to find another place for him at the Justice Department. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said Tuesday that he would not vote to advance Martin's nomination to the full Senate.
"I was disappointed. A lot of people were disappointed, but that's the way it works sometimes," Mr. Trump said. "He wasn't rejected, but we felt it would be very, it would be hard. And we have somebody else that we'll be announcing over the next two days who's going to be great."
Mr. Trump said Martin will remain at the Justice Department as associate deputy attorney general and pardon attorney, a key role that typically advises the president on how to use his clemency power. The president said Martin will also serve as director of the Justice Department's "Weaponization Working Group," a committee formed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to "review" the department's Biden-era activities, including its investigations into Mr. Trump, Capitol rioters and others.
Martin, a "Stop the Steal" activist, was appointed to the post on an interim basis and can serve until May 20. In the role, he oversaw a purge of prosecutors who worked on criminal cases stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Tillis said his concerns about Martin were related to the Capitol riot, adding that he has "no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on Jan. 6, and that's probably where most of the friction was."
"If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any district except the district where Jan. 6 happened, the protests happened, I'd probably support him," Tillis said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said earlier this week that Tillis' opposition indicated that Martin likely wouldn't advance out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Alan He and Kaia Hubbard contributed to this report.
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
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