U.S. attorney hints at prosecutions over ‘targeting’ of DOGE employees
In an unusual public statement, the interim U.S. attorney said he had found evidence that people had apparently violated the law in ‘targeting’ DOGE employees.
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Interim D.C. U.S. attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. alleged in a statement Monday that his office had found evidence that people “committed acts that appear to violate the law in targeting” employees of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” — an unusual statement that came without any public criminal charges.
Hours after making public
a letter he wrote to Musk saying the U.S. attorney’s office would “pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people,” Martin posted on X that his “initial review of the evidence” had found wrongdoing and hinted that he planned to take legal action.
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“They have broken the law,” Musk wrote, reposting the @reddit_lies account’s own message.
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Barbara McQuade, who served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan under President Barack Obama, called Martin’s letter highly unusual and said it appeared designed to silence Musk’s critics.
“It strikes me as an effort to put a chilling effect on people who might be inclined to exercise their First Amendment rights,” said McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor. “That is an abuse of power.”
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Martin has taken a high profile since Jan. 20, when the conservative activist and commentator became the first U.S. attorney for D.C. in at least 50 years
to be appointed without experience as a judge or a federal prosecutor. He fired
Capitol riot prosecutors who were recently hired and still on probationary status and ordered top supervisors in the office to
investigate their colleagues’ handling of some Jan. 6 prosecutions after President Donald Trump’s mass pardons.
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