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Left: Former acting U.S. Attorney for D.C. Ed Martin being interviewed by Newsmax (court documents) Right: A person believed to be Emily Gabriella Sommer appearing to spit on Martin during the interview (court documents)
A woman was taken into custody for allegedly spitting on Ed Martin, the troubled ex-interim U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C., as he was giving an interview earlier this month.
Emily Gabriella Sommer, aged 32, faces a charge of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing a government official, as outlined in an affidavit published on Thursday. This charge was revealed during Sommer’s court appearance, during which U.S. Marshals had to escort her out due to her becoming “agitated,” reported by local WUSA journalist Jordan Fischer.
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The confrontation between Sommer and Martin occurred on May 8 at about 3:30 p.m. in front of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., according to the court documents. While a Newsmax reporter was interviewing Martin, Sommer is said to have approached him and made a comment along the lines of, “Who in the f— are you?”
When Martin, 55, turned toward Sommer, she allegedly said, “Are you Ed Martin? You are. Ed Martin,” and then lunged at him and spit on his left shoulder.
Sommer proceeded to walk away, yelling, “You are a disgusting man. F— you, Ed Martin. My name is Emily Gabriella Sommer, and you are served,” the affidavit states.
Investigators searched law enforcement databases for her name and found a previous booking photo that was consistent with photos from the incident with Martin. They also found an X account with the username “@EmilyGabriellaS” that had made several identical posts about the confrontation, replying to posts from Martin and saying: “ED, that was me that spit in your face today” and calling the action a “pleasure.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh reportedly released Sommer on Thursday without GPS monitoring after her public defender attorneys argued such punishment would be inconsistent with many similar January 6 cases.
Martin’s erstwhile nomination to lead the federal prosecutor’s office in the nation’s capital was bumpy from the start, with more than 100 former U.S. attorneys signing a statement describing him as an “egregiously unqualified political hack.” Other prosecutors, including many who worked on Jan. 6 cases — some of which Martin himself defended — accused him of having a “fundamental misunderstanding of the role.”
Martin was serving as the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia at the time of the confrontation. He needed Senate confirmation within 120 days of his appointment to secure the role full time, and, as he was appointed to the interim position by President Donald Trump in January, his time was running out.
Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro has since been tapped as his replacement, and it was she and acting U.S. Marshal Ron Carter of the District Court for the District of Columbia who announced the complaint against Sommer on Thursday.
