Ed Martin’s office has no windows. That’s how he likes it. “Less distraction,” he’s said, though sources close to him say it’s so no one can see who’s coming and going. Since taking over the Department of Justice’s new Weaponization Working Group, Martin has demanded loyalty, secrecy, and silence. “This is war,” he told aides on his first day. “You don’t take prisoners in war.”
“If they can’t be charged, we will name them.”
That line, delivered at a May press conference, wasn’t a slip. It was a signal.
The Working Group wasn’t built like a traditional DOJ unit. It was carved out of the Attorney General’s office—above the U.S. Attorneys, beyond the reach of internal ethics staff, and wired directly into the White House. Quarterly briefings bypass the usual institutional safeguards. The group answers not to the law, but to politics. Specifically, the politics of revenge.
When Pam Bondi was sworn in as Attorney General on February 5, 2025, she promised to “restore confidence” in federal law enforcement. By the end of that week, she’d shut down the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, dismantled Task Force KleptoCapture, and gutted enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. She called it “decluttering.” Insiders call it purging.
What replaced them was the Weaponization Working Group. Its stated mission: investigate “politicized” prosecutions against Trump and his allies. Its real function: flip the lights on the past four years and start pulling wires.
Martin had been a right-wing operative for years before stepping into the DOJ. He organized “Stop the Steal” rallies, defended Capitol rioters, and logged over 150 appearances on Russian state TV between 2016 and 2024. As interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, he demoted the prosecutors handling January 6 cases. When his nomination was pulled in May, Trump gave him a consolation prize: czar of the Weaponization Working Group. The job came with three titles and no Senate oversight.