Justice Department official accused of ethics violations for letter to Georgetown dean

WASHINGTON — The office that enforces ethics standards for attorneys in the nation’s capital has accused Justice Department official Ed Martin of professional misconduct for a threatening letter that he sent to Georgetown Law School’s dean last year, when Martin was the top federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C.

Georgetown University is one of the leading Catholic universities in the United States, and affiliated with the Jesuit order.

Martin was the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia when he warned the Georgetown dean that his office wouldn’t hire the private school’s students if it didn’t eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, according to ethics charges filed last Friday by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

Martin, an ardent Trump loyalist who is now the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, is accused of violating his oath of office and the Constitution’s rights to free speech and due process. Disciplinary Counsel Hamilton Fox, who filed the ethics charges against Martin, is asking a panel of D.C. Court of Appeals officials to decide if any discipline is warranted.

Martin and an attorney representing him in the matter didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment. Martin has 20 days to formally respond in writing.

After Martin learned of the accusations against him last year, he sent a letter addressed to D.C. Court of Appeals judges in which he complained about Fox’s “uneven behavior” and requested a “face-to-face meeting with all of you to discuss this matter and find a way forward,” according to Fox’s filing.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche criticized the complaint against Martin as the product of “a blatantly Democrat-run political organization.” A Justice Department statement said the complaint fits a “partisan organization’s agenda“ to punish Trump administration officials while ignoring ethical lapses by government attorneys who worked under Democratic presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

“Let us not forget that DC-barred members of Biden’s special counsel were found to have acted against President Trump without legal authority and in clear violation of the Constitution, yet the bar did nothing,” the department’s statement said.

Martin was a conservative activist with no prosecutorial experience when President Donald Trump picked him last January to lead the nation’s largest U.S. Attorney’s office. Martin was a leading figure in Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement after the 2020 presidential election.

In a letter to Georgetown Law Dean William Treanor last February, Martin said a whistleblower informed him that Georgetown Law School “continues to promote and teach DEI.” The letter dovetailed with an executive order that Trump signed to call for ending DEI programs in the federal government.

“This is unacceptable,” Martin wrote, warning the dean that his office wouldn’t consider any Georgetown law students for jobs, summer internships or fellowships until his “letter of inquiry” was resolved.

In response, Treanor told Martin that the First Amendment prohibits the government from dictating what Georgetown’s faculty teaches or how to teach it.

“Given the First Amendment’s protection of a university’s freedom to determine its own curriculum and how to deliver it, the constitutional violation behind this threat is clear, as is the attack on the University’s mission as a Jesuit and Catholic institution,” Treanor wrote.

Trump pulled Martin’s nomination to keep the job on a more permanent basis after a key Republican senator said he could not support Martin for the job due to his outspoken advocacy for Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Last May, Trump picked Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to replace Martin as U.S. Attorney. Martin remains the Justice Department’s pardon attorney but was recently removed as head of its “Weaponization Working Group,” which is tasked with scrutinizing the federal prosecutions of Trump.

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.