Trump ally's 'amateurish' stunt may have torpedoed demand for vengeance: report

A right-wing activist tapped to investigate the so-called weaponization of government against President Donald Trump has wasted no time targeting his political enemies, but even his bosses at the Department of Justice worry his theatrical stunts might backfire.

Ed Martin Jr., a Republican activist from Missouri who defended many of the Jan. 6 rioters in court, was tasked by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi with investigating New York Attorney General Letitia James, but his dramatic statements and attention-grabbing actions could prevent him from bringing a case against her, reported the New York Times.

“I’m tempted to describe their conduct as amateurish, but the consequences can be grave because they have enormous power at the Justice Department,” said Barbara L. McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor who was a U.S. attorney in Alabama during the Obama administration. "I'm worried about long-term consequences of the public trust in the department itself because people will see the department as yet one more weapon and tool of politics instead of the independent law enforcement agency it’s supposed to be.”

Martin showed up outside James' Brooklyn home, wearing a rumpled tan trench coat in the stifling heat and posing for photos for The New York Post, and he went on Fox News later to make vague insinuations of wrongdoing against the state official who successfully sued Trump for fraudulently inflating the value of his properties, and a judge fined him over a half billion dollars.

"Mr. Martin’s conduct is part of an emerging pattern from Mr. Trump’s administration over the past two months in which top officials seek to use the federal government’s vast intelligence gathering and law enforcement authority to cast the specter of criminality on Mr. Trump’s enemies without demonstrating that they might have committed crimes that rise to the level of an indictment," the Times reported.

"The behavior may ultimately be so outside the bounds that it could undermine any criminal case, according to legal experts," the newspaper added. "Attorney General Pam Bondi and her top deputy, Todd Blanche, caught off guard by the Brooklyn stunt, let Mr. Martin know that his actions were not helpful, according to people with knowledge of the situation."

Especially unusual was Martin's written request to James' lawyer stating that he would take her resignation as an act of "good faith," although the attorney general still has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing.

“Despite the lack of evidence or law, you will take whatever actions you have been directed to take to make good on President Trump’s and Attorney General Bondi’s calls for revenge,” wrote Abbe Lowell, an attorney for James, adding that Martin's conduct showed he was “not conducting a serious investigation.”

Martin – whose trademark trench coat is an homage to his relative Thomas Mitchell, a character actor best known for portraying the bumbling Uncle Billy in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life" – is far from the only Trump administration official to grandstand on television. But experts believe he may wind up undercutting whatever case he tries to bring against the president's enemies.

"To current and former Justice Department officials, Mr. Martin is equal parts comic relief and existential threat," the Times reported. "He has virtually no experience overseeing investigations, or in compiling a case that successfully persuades a grand jury to bring an indictment. But his willingness to take dramatic actions intended to punish and intimidate Mr. Trump’s enemies has earned him support from the White House."