‘Stop the Steal’ leader is filing motions to dismiss J6 charges — as acting U.S. attorney
More than four years ago, following Donald Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, “Stop the Steal” leader Ed Martin stood in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to rally a pro-Trump sect called Rod of Iron Ministries that incorporates AR-15 rifles into their worship services.
Now, after Trump took the oath of office to begin his second term, Martin is serving as acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and filing motions to dismiss indictments against the rioters who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the U.S. Capitol.
On Dec. 8, 2020, Martin, who was the president of the conservative group Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, stood in from of the U.S. Supreme Court. Members of Rod of Iron Ministries, a syncretic Christian sect from Pennsylvania, chanted and prayed for the court to hear a challenge to the election results in Pennsylvania.
Martin introduced himself as “one of the founders of Stop the Steal,” alongside Ali Alexander, a Republican operative who had helped organize rallies in state capitols and Washington, D.C. that became carnivals of defiance while attracting extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
“We are a republic founded on a Constitution and the rule of law. But the Constitution and the rule of law mean nothing if you do not have the Judeo-Christian values that underly it,” Martin said.
Martin told the Rod of Iron members not to worry about whether the Supreme Court refused to hear the election challenge and allowed the states to certify their results by the Dec. 14 deadline, according to a YouTube video of the speech reviewed by Raw Story that has now been removed for violating the platform’s community guidelines.
“Now, we all know at the end of today, the winner’s Jesus Christ Almighty God,” Martin said. “We also know that no temporary deadline, no ‘safe harbor’ will take away the American republic.”
There would be a legal fight, he said, but also “a fight for information”.
“Now, the left hits propaganda — we speak the truth,” Martin continued. “We speak His truth, and then we bring our truth down here. And we have to be — like the old days — evangelizers of the truth, in this country, in this nation, because there’s too much at stake for us to turn away now. So, here’s the thing: Be encouraged. Be strengthened. Be fortified. And pray. But be ready to keep fighting.”
Martin invited the Rod of Iron Ministries members to come back in four days for a “Jericho March.”
“And if these principalities won’t yield to the truth and the Constitution, we know what happened in Jericho,” Martin said.
What happened in Jericho, according to the Bible Scripture, is that the Israelites marched around the city in a divinely inspired quest to conquer it. The Israelites shouted and blew trumpets and the wall fell, according to the Scripture. Following their victory, the Israelites took swords to the city’s residents and their animals.
Among the speakers at the Jericho March was Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act or face a “much more desperate, much more bloody war." Rhodes’ 18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy was commuted on Monday by President Trump, allowing him to walk out of FCI Cumberland in Maryland.
The Jericho March would be the final large gathering of Trump supporters in Washington, D.C., before Jan. 6, 2021. It helped lay the groundwork for the event, which received the biggest promotional push imaginable — a tweet from the president calling on his supporters to come to a “big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” promising that it would “be wild.”
During his speech at the Ellipse, Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell” and said he was going to “walk down to the Capitol” with them. Angered by news that Vice President Mike Pence was refusing to cave to Trump’s pressure to set aside certification of the election to Biden, thousands of the president’s supporters broke through barricades and streamed into the Capitol building. Armed with Tasers, bear spray, knives and firearms, Trump’s supporters battled law enforcement officers, while also using stolen riot shields and makeshift weapons fashioned from destroyed office furniture.
At the end of the day, four Trump supporters lay dead, and a police officer died the following day from injuries sustained after being assaulted by rioters. The siege resulted in assaults against more than 140 police officers, and more than $2.8 million in damages to the building, according to the Department of Justice.
Phone texts that Alexander turned over to the House Select January 6th Committee show that Martin requested passes to the rally at the Ellipse from Alexander, and also asked for a golf cart to pick him up on the morning of Jan. 6 following his SiriusXM radio show for Breitbart.
The texts also show that Martin invited Alexander to make a guest appearance on the show, suggesting a “quick hit” to “push” the StopTheSteal.us website. Later, on Jan. 6, Martin sent Alexander a link to the interview.
Alexander, conspiracy trafficker Alex Jones and their entourage walked to the Capitol, where they observed Trump supporters fighting with the police on the west side, and then circled around to the east side and ascended the steps, wending through the dense crowd in a conga line. The texts show one of Alexander’s lieutenants reporting to him that the mob “broke through and stormed the Capitol.”
Later, Alexander made his way to 101 Constitution Avenue, an office building with a sweeping view of the Capitol.
While there, the texts show that Alexander received a message from Martin asking: “How are you holding up?”
“I find it all interesting — difficult to process it,” Alexander responded.
“Well said,” Martin replied.
A minute later, Martin added that he would “try to sneak over” to 101 Constitution Avenue.
It is unclear whether Martin ever made to the office building to survey the chaos at the Capitol.
Four years later, Martin is literally wiping away the charges against those who stormed the Capitol and vanquishing the “principalities” that sought to hold them accountable through the law.
In one case after another on Tuesday, Martin is filing motions to dismiss in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, citing the executive order issued last night by Trump “Granting Pardons and Commutation of Sentences for Certain Offenses Relating to the Events at Or Near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
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