By Michael Kunzelman
Washington (AP) – Ed Martin Jr., who will be the new lawyer for the Ministry of Justice after President Donald Trump has taken his appointment to be the best Washington federal prosecutor, said on Tuesday that he planned to scrutinize pardons that former President Joe Biden had published by the White House.
“These are great moments, and they must therefore be able to resist a meticulous exam,” said Martin to journalists on Tuesday, his last full day as an American lawyer for the Columbia district.
Biden forgave his brothers and sisters and their spouses in January on his last day in power. He also forgiven Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired general Mark Milley and the members of the Chamber Committee who investigated the attack of January 6, 2021 against the Capitol.
None of them had been accused of crime. The pardons were designed to protect themselves against possible reprisals by President Donald Trump.
Trump shot Martin’s appointment last week in the middle of the Bipartite opposition and replaced him by Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who should be sworn in Wednesday.
Instead, Martin will serve as an assistant prosecutor and a lawyer for forgiveness. In his new role, Martin will also be director of the “Armament Working Group” at the Ministry of Justice.
The Attorney General Pam Bondi called to create this group in February to investigate the work of former special lawyer Jack Smith, who led two federal proceedings of Trump who were finally abandoned, and other examples of what the Republicans claim to be an unfair targeting of the Conservatives during the Biden administration.
By announcing his last -minute pardons, Biden said that his family had been “subject to implacable attacks and threats, motivated only by a desire to hurt me – the worst type of partisan policy”.
“Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe that these attacks will end,” he said the day of Trump’s second inauguration.
Martin told journalists he believed that Biden’s pardons “needed a meticulous exam.”
“They need to be examined because we want the pardons to have importance and to be accepted and to be something that is used correctly. So I think we are going to examine carefully how they went and what they did,” he said.
The Constitution grants large Pardon powers to the presidents and their leniency actions cannot be canceled by the courts or other officials. It is not clear what action, if necessary, Martin thinks that he could take with regard to the pardons of Biden.
Martin said that the American lawyer’s office under his leadership had already “examined part of the driving surrounding the pardons and Biden’s white house”.
Trump also used the President’s forgiveness powers to benefit those who are close to him. In his last weeks of his first mandate, Trump forgave Charles Kushner, his son’s father, Jared Kushner, as well as multiple allies sentenced in the special investigation of the special council Robert Mueller.
On the first day of his second term, Trump pardoned almost every 1,500 people accused of crimes in the riot of the Capitol, releasing prison of the dozens of people found guilty of aggression.
Trump appointed Martin as an American lawyer during his first week returning to the White House. Martin supervised the rejection of hundreds of cases of riot of the Capitol after the Pardons of January 6 of Trump.
But his hopes of keeping the work faded in the midst of questions about his lack of experience of prosecution and his division policy. Trump took the appointment of Martin two days after a key republican senator said that he could not support Martin for the post because of his defense of the rioters of the Capitol.
“In the end, the president decided that we did not want to continue to move forward,” said Martin. “The President of the United States said that we had other battles to do, and therefore I am excited about it.”
The writer Associated Press Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
