Trump Taps Ed Martin to Investigate Biden’s Pardons and Mental Fitness

President Donald Trump is reportedly bringing back Ed Martin, his former leading choice for U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., to investigate whether Joe Biden was “competent” enough to issue pardons as he left office or if there was misuse of the AutoPen or other mechanisms, as stated by government officials.

Martin, who transitioned from his position as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to be succeeded by Jeanine Pirro the previous month, has been appointed by Trump to aid with pardon-related tasks. In an email sent on Monday, Martin briefed staff at the Department of Justice about his new role to delve into the clemency decisions made by Biden during his presidency’s final days, according to Reuters, which gained access to the emails and primarily reported on the investigation. Whether Biden utilized an autopen for these pardons remains uncertain.

“The American people deserve to know the extent to which unelected staffers and an autopen acted as a proxy president due to the incompetence and infirmity of the previous president,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told The Hill in a statement Tuesday.

“President Trump was elected to restore the integrity and transparency of the office, and answering the question of who was actually running this country for four years is well within the president’s rights,” Fields said.

Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.

The pardon review comes just weeks after Martin’s bid for U.S. Attorney was withdrawn by Trump after he lost support in the Senate.

In April, a group of more than 100 former prosecutors sent a letter voicing their opposition to Martin’s and called for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where Martin could be questioned on statements he’s made about the 2020 election being stolen from Trump and his firings of people who investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol attack earlier this year. The group banded together on the same day that Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. — a member of the Judiciary Committee — announced he would be placing a hold on Martin’s nomination, citing his “troubling conduct in his months as Interim U.S. Attorney in the same role.”

Martin, a New Jersey native who previously had his own law practice in Missouri and represented Jan. 6 defendants, was nominated by Trump to lead the nation’s largest U.S. attorney’s office in February. He has been accused of going after people who disagree with his politics, including lawmakers.

Martin posted an ominous warning on X in March, declaring that “no one is above the law” — in response to an incident in which a Democratic congresswoman from Texas was accused of shoving a far-right activist’s cellphone away from her as the person was questioning her. Schiff sent out a statement accusing Martin of “openly threatening and intimidating political opponents, dismissing charges against his own clients, firing public servants for their roles in legitimate investigations, and using his office as a cudgel to chill dissent and free speech.”