President Donald Trump withdrew his nomination of Ed Martin to serve as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia on Thursday, suggesting the lawyer’s Senate confirmation process would have been difficult if it proceeded.
Trump praised Martin as a “terrific person” but noted “he wasn’t getting the support from people that I thought.”
Martin, who has been serving as the interim U.S. attorney for D.C. since Trump’s inauguration, didn’t receive support from Senator Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) this week. The nomination had also been opposed by Senator Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, because Martin allegedly made false statements and contradicting statements to the committee.
Martin previously represented Americans charged in the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, which dissuaded Tillis from backing him.
“I have no tolerance for anybody that entered the building on January 6, and that’s probably where most of the friction was,” Tillis said on Tuesday.
The Senate had to confirm Martin by May 20, when his 120-day tenure in the interim role was set to expire. Otherwise, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg would have been able to select a temporary replacement to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. Boasberg is the judge with whom the Trump administration battled over deportations of alleged gang members to El Salvador.
Trump said Martin has “done a very good job,” bringing crime down to 25 percent in the District so far this year. But the president signaled there is a new nominee who could receive more support than Martin could, and an announcement could be coming before the week is over.
“I have to be straight. I was disappointed,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after announcing a trade deal with the U.K. “A lot of people were disappointed. But that’s the way it works. Sometimes, you know, that’s the way it works. And 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.”
Judge Boasberg can still select a temporary replacement for the role if the Senate can’t confirm the new nominee by May 20.
Martin was the second official whose nomination was pulled in as many days, with Trump nominating Casey Means, a close ally of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in place of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat to serve as the next surgeon general. Means is a strong advocate of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again vision. Nesheiwat’s nomination was pulled one day before her scheduled Senate confirmation hearing.
Previously, Trump withdrew the nomination of Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to protect the House’s razor-thin Republican majority. The president later chose Mike Waltz as her replacement after the former national security adviser was ousted amid a controversy involving his sharing of military plans on the Signal messaging app.
Also on Thursday, the Trump administration dismissed the acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cameron Hilton. The shakeup comes as the White House considers disbanding the agency after its scrutinized emergency responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton last fall.