The interim U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., Edward Martin, asked two top prosecutors to review the handling of Capitol riot prosecutions, focusing on one of the most heavily litigated counts in the sweeping investigation that President Trump has sought to discredit as a “witch hunt” against him, the Washington Post reports. The move follows Trump’s grants of pardons or sentence commutations to nearly 1,600 people charged in one of the Justice Department’s largest prosecutions, continuing a move to change history’s understanding of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Martin appointed Denise Cheung, chief of the Criminal Division, and Jon Hooks, chief of the Fraud, Public Corruption and Civil Rights section, to lead a “special project” investigating the office’s charging of more than 250 Capitol riot defendants with obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, a statute the Supreme Court ruled last June was too broadly applied.
“Obviously, the use was a great failure of our office … and we need to get to the bottom of it,” Martin wrote in an email to his staff, saying he expected a preliminary report by Friday. “Please deliver to Jonathan and/or Denise all information you have related to the use of [federal law section] 1512 charges including all files, documents, notes, emails and other information,” Martin wrote. “Be comprehensive and assertive in this, please,” he said, adding: “This 1512 project is important work." Martin’s tasking of two high-ranking supervisors in the office of 300 federal prosecutors — the nation’s largest U.S. Attorney’s office — to carry out the review prompted criticism from current and former Justice Department officials that he is helping the Trump administration sow discord in the office, divert prosecutorial resources and punish prosecutors making reasonable legal judgments. Prosecutors’ use of the obstruction statute was approved by nearly all judges who reviewed it before it reached the high court. Martin's focus on prosecutors’ charging decisions follows calls by Trump for prosecutors to be prosecuted. Martin, 54, was a “Stop the Steal” organizer for Trump after his 2020 election loss and a board member of a nonprofit group that raised money for Jan. 6 defendants as victims of political persecution. He was a defense attorney for three such defendants, including a Kansas City Proud Boys leader who pleaded guilty to assaulting police with an ax handle.
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