The Next United States Attorney
For the District of Columbia
A Statement of Conscience and Principle
By Those Who Have Served as Assistant United States Attorneys
For the District of Columbia Over the Past Fifty Years
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INTRODUCTION
In 1801, John Thomson Mason, whose uncle was George Mason, a delegate to the
Constitutional Convention and the Father of the Bill of Rights, was nominated by President
Thomas Jefferson to serve as the first United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.
We are John Thomson Mason’s heirs and the heirs of 51 other men and women who have
honorably and faithfully held that position for the past 224 years.
We speak in opposition to Edward Martin to be the next United States Attorney for the
District of Columbia.
Our number includes veterans of the United States Attorney’s Office (the Office) of all
political persuasions who served in the Office under both Republican and Democratic
administrations. We served no political agenda, no political party, and no political figure. We
served justice as we were expected to and as the generations before us did.
We are determined that the values and norms that were birthed during the tenure of John
Thomson Mason and his successors – a commitment to the rule of law, the absence of partisanship
in the pursuit of justice, the presence of civility, decency, and fairness – continue unabated now
and hereafter.
We oppose the appointment of Edward Martin (the nominee) to be United States Attorney
for the District of Columbia. He is unworthy of the position, incapable of the task, and an affront
to the singular pursuit of justice for which this Office has stood for more than two centuries.
THE NOMINEE’S RAMPANT MISBEHAVIOR AND UNFITNESS
The nominee comes to the position he seeks without a meaningful background in any
public service. Neither a prosecutor nor judge, he was a political operative, to put it gently. Much
has been unearthed and written about his early shenanigans. They are well recorded in the press.
His refusals to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election and the illegality in
the conduct of 1600 individuals who overran the police and the Capitol on January 6, 2021, causing
physical harm to dozens and potentially irreparable damage to the institution of democratic
governance are in and of themselves disqualifying. As well, these misbehaviors are cues to where
the nominee will go if ceded the position of United States Attorney.
But cues are unnecessary. The nominee has already shown us what he will do. He has
“acted” as United States Attorney for many weeks now. In his “tryout” phase, he has butchered
the position, effectively destroying it as a vehicle by which to pursue justice and turning it into a
political arm of the current administration. He has done these things in ways that typify
authoritarian and indeed totalitarian regimes of the most notorious sort.
No United States Attorney should:
• Terminate Assistant United States Attorneys for prosecuting individuals who
invaded the Capitol building on January 6, 2021;
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• Investigate Assistant United States Attorneys for pursuing criminal charges that
were upheld on challenges to them by more than a dozen United States District
Judges;
• Tweet or otherwise publicly comment on matters either under investigation or
outside his purview;
• Directly contact sitting members of Congress on matters protected by the Speech
or Debate Clause while mistaking basic facts at issue;
• Order the head of the Office’s criminal division to open a politically charged
investigation and request asset seizure without any predication;
• Ignore serious conflicts of interest by personally moving to dismiss a criminal case
where he represented the defendant;
• Threaten to investigate a law firm whose lawyers have provided pro bono services
to a potential target without any basis in law or fact.
The nominee has done all of this with abandon and evident relish.
But there is more, as ominous and disturbing as any other of the nominee’s improper and
unethical misbehaviors. The Nation’s legal landscape is increasingly filled with threats to those
who oppose the current administration. Social media is replete with them. Many are done
anonymously. One that is not anonymous is the striking threat, indeed the urging of the President’s
chief advisor, Elon Musk, that judges failing to approve President Trump’s policies and proposals
should be impeached. Yes, impeached. As much as any directive could, this misguided attack
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undermines the independence of the judiciary, as it seemingly was intended to do. The nominee
appears complicit in this intimidation, which strikes particularly hard at the courts of this District.
The nominee has not only failed to speak against it, he has written reassuringly and supportively
to Mr. Musk that he stands with him to advance his objectives, objectives challenged in court
before judges whom Mr. Musk wishes to see impeached if they rule against him. Surely no United
States Attorney in this District (or elsewhere for that matter) should further this intimidation. The
nominee appears complicit in it, fully and completely.
AN ACT OF CONSCIENCE AND AN EXPRESSION OF PRINCIPLE
No one who values the legacy of John Thomson Mason or the 51 men and women who
followed him as United States Attorneys for the District of Columbia should countenance the
foregoing conduct.
There is a time when we all are called to stand for the full and fair administration of justice
and the rule of law. For those of us who have served in the Office of the United States Attorney
and still have a breath, that time is now.
And the message we speak is, reject – outright and completely – the proposed nominee.
Whether our message is futile or not, it is an expression of our conscience and a matter of principle
that we deliver with all of the strength that we can muster.
Edward Martin should not be the next United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.
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SIGNATORIES
Donald A. Abrams (1972-1978) Carolyn J. Adams (1982-1987)
John Aldock (1968-1971) Roy Austin (2010-2014)
Ellen Bass (1984-1989) Richard L. Beizer (1971-1983)
Harry R. Benner (1972-2000) Greg C. Brady (1968-1974)
C. Madison Brewer (1968-1982) William M. Brodsky (1971-1976)
David Bullock (1970-1976) Peter A. Chapin (1971-1976)
Philip Cohen (1969-1972) Jerry Coughlan (1973-1976)
Kenneth W. Cowgill (1982-2005) Harry Damelin (1978-1986)
John E. Drury (1970-1975) Joel DuBoff (1973-1977)
Steve Durham (1992-2012) Margaret Ellen (1977-2004)
Robert Fabrikant (1974-1977) Michael W. Farrell (1979-1989)
Cary M. Feldman (1977-1984) Carole Garfiel Freeman (1964-1968)
Stewart M. Gerson (1971-1975) John P. Gidez (1987-2021)
Richard Gordin (1980-1984) Jerry S. Goren (1979-1986)
Stephen W. Grafman (1969-1974) Thomas C. Green (1967-1970)
James F. Hibey (1975-1980) Robert Higgins (1969-1974)
Thomas Hill (1978-1983) Herbert B. Hoffman (1969-1973)
Paul Howes (1983-1995) June M. Jeffries (1983-2008)
Peter J. Kadzik (1978-1980) Richard A. Kaplan (1980-1984)
Michael A. Katz (1971-1975) Philip L Kellogg (1968-1972)
Thomas J. Kelly, Jr. (1981-1989) Colleen M. Kennedy (1981-1989)
Patricia J. Kenney (1979-1985) Paul Knight (1977-1989)
Jason D. Kogan (1970-1983) David Krakoff (1976-1986)
Barry Wm. Levine (1969-1975) Nancy Luque (1981-1989)
James L. Lyons (1969-1972) Catherine Mack (1980-1984)
Anne McKinsey (1975-1981) James B. McMahon (1970=1973)
Joseph McSorley (1970-1982) M. Elizabeth Medaglia (1974-1979)
Edward T. Miller (1964-1968) Peter Muller (1971-1979)
Robert Ogren (1968-1978; 1980-1982) William D. Pease (1973-1987)
Bruce Peterson (1981-1986) Ann Powers (1975-1979)
E. Thomas Roberts (1975-1984) Martha P. Rogers (1977-1980)
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Charles Roistacher (1969-1989) John Roman (1985-1999)
Silvia Gonzalez Roman (1985-1999; 2014- Robert H. Saltsman (1974-1979)
2019)
Dianne Kelly Sanford (1977-1980) Pamala M. Sayad (1977-1980)
Michael Scheininger (1972-1978) Terry P. Segal (1968-1970)
James E. Sharp (1968-1973) Richard Shine (1971-1974)
Ron Silver (1982-2015) David L. Smith (1991-2000)
Sherry A. Sprague (1987-2022) Pamela B. Stuart (1979-1985)
D. William Subin (1968-1969) Diane M. Sullivan (1978-2011)
James Sweeney (1992-2021) W. Randolph Teslik (1976-1986)
Robert Tignor (1969-1973) Daniel Toomey (1968-1971)
Elizabeth Trosman (1982-2021) Albert Turkus (1972-1978)
Mark Tuohey (1973-1977) Kathleen Voelker (1979-1989)
Karen I. Ward (1975-1979) Robert Watkins (1968-1969; 1970-1972)
Jerome Wiener (1969-1973) Edwin A. Williams (1969-1972)
David Wilson (1973-1976) Larry C. Willey (1974-1977)
Katherine Winfree (1980-1999) Charles Work (1966-1973)
Dan Zachem (1988-2010)
