Ed Martin, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, compared the use of an obstruction of an official proceeding charge against Jan. 6 defendants to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, according to an email obtained by NBC News.
Martin, a “stop the steal” organizer and advocate for Jan. 6 defendants who lacked any prosecutorial experience when Trump named him D.C.’s chief federal prosecutor on an interim basis, has also been nominated to take over the position on a permanent basis. In an email this morning, he said the “special project” he launched into the use of an obstruction statute against Jan. 6 defendants was broadening.
“The 1512 Project is expanded [sic] in scope,” Martin wrote. “We continue to look at exactly how and why so many Jan 6th cases were charged using 1512 which led to the dramatic failure before the Supreme Court. We have contacted lawyers, staff and judges about this — and sought their feedback. One called the bi-partisan rejection of the 1512 charge the ‘greatest failure of legal judgement since FDR and his Attorney General put American citizens of Japanese descent in prison camps — and seized their property.’ I agree and that’s why we continue to look at who ordered the 1512 and why. A lot to do.”
The reference to the internment of Japanese Americans and the Korematsu v. United States case was “grotesque,” one former Jan. 6 prosecutor told NBC News.
“That he would compare the internment of thousands of Americans solely based on their ethnicity to the targeted arrest of individuals who committed crimes on video is sickening,” the former Jan. 6 prosecutor said.
The internment of Japanese Americans was the last time that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was used until this year, when it was invoked by the Trump administration to justify the deportation of Venezuelans suspected of being gang members to El Salvador. That case is currently making its way through the court system.
Martin also wrote that they have “been asked to look into leaks that took place during January 6th prosecutions,” and claimed that “leaks of evidence, tactics, and other aspects of the effort damaged the parties, witnesses, and LEOs and all of this was used by the media and partisans as misinformation.”
“It was bad all around. (One participant said she believed the media was in a frenzy for attention like during the OJ Simpson trial.),” he wrote.
Martin represented several Jan. 6 defendants and was on the grounds of the Capitol on Jan. 6. The day before the attack, he gave a speech in front of the Capitol saying that “die-hard true Americans” would fight until their “last breath” to “stop the steal.”
