President Trump announced that DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin is stepping down to lead legal efforts aimed at securing fair elections ahead of the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, praising Martin's service across multiple roles in the administration and framing the move as a strategic deployment rather than a simple departure. Martin, who also served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and directed the Weaponization Working Group, will shift his focus entirely to election-related litigation.
Trump wrote on Truth Social:
"Ed Martin has been with me from the very beginning, and done an incredible job as an Attorney, Director of the Weaponization Working Group, and the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Ed is now leaving to go outside to fight Legal Battles for the upcoming Midterm Election, and the Presidential Election of 2028."
Trump added that he expects Martin to "ensure Free, Fair, and Honest Elections, and strongly advance our Constitutional Rights." The president offered no details about which organization or entity Martin would join, nor did he name a successor for the pardon attorney role.
Martin's tenure touched several of the administration's highest-profile priorities. As pardon attorney, he oversaw the clemency process during a period Trump used aggressively. As U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, the jurisdiction that handles federal cases in the nation's capital, Martin occupied one of the most politically visible prosecutorial seats in the country. And as director of the Weaponization Working Group, he led the DOJ's internal effort to examine what Republicans have long described as the politicization of federal law enforcement.
Few officials held all three roles simultaneously. That breadth gave Martin unusual reach inside the department, and makes his departure a notable shift in the administration's legal infrastructure heading into a contested election cycle.
Earlier this year, Breitbart News reported on a previously unseen memo Martin had written to Trump. In it, Martin connected the president's clemency actions to the broader populist promise Trump made at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Martin wrote:
"In Milwaukee, in 2024, you dedicated the Republican Party platform to the 'forgotten men and women of America.' In so many ways, you have lived up to this dedication and in one special way you have delivered via your power to grant clemency through pardon and commutation. You delivered mercy to the forgotten men and women of America in record numbers."
Martin did not cite a specific number of pardons or commutations in the excerpts that were published. The "record numbers" characterization is his own assessment, not an independently verified figure from the source.
Trump's decision to move Martin from inside the Justice Department to an outside election-litigation role signals how seriously the administration views the legal front of the coming campaigns. Midterm elections routinely produce fights over voter rolls, ballot access, mail-in voting procedures, and poll-watching rules. With control of Congress at stake in 2026, both parties typically invest heavily in pre-election legal positioning.
By deploying a loyalist who already knows the DOJ's internal workings, Trump is placing someone with prosecutorial experience and institutional knowledge on the outside of the government, where he can challenge state and local election practices without the constraints that come with a federal appointment.
Several questions remain unanswered. No specific legal battles, cases, or jurisdictions were identified in Trump's announcement. Martin's new organizational home, whether a campaign entity, a party committee, or an independent legal group, was not disclosed. And the administration has not yet named anyone to fill the pardon attorney vacancy or Martin's other roles.
What is clear is the priority. Trump wants the legal groundwork for 2026 and 2028 laid now, and he wants someone he trusts doing the laying. Whether that preparation translates into cleaner elections or simply more litigation will depend on what Martin actually files, and where.
Fair elections are worth fighting for. The question is never whether to prepare, it's whether the people doing the preparing are serious enough for the job. Trump seems to think Martin is.
