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Trump’s D.C. U.S. attorney pick appeared on Russian state media over 150 times

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Via: hallux • 3 days ago • 5 comments

By: Spencer S. Hsu and Aaron Schaffer - WaPo

Trump’s D.C. U.S. attorney pick appeared on Russian state media over 150 times

Nominee Ed Martin did not initially disclose his RT and Sputnik appearances from 2016 to 2024 to the Senate. The State Department has said the networks act like arms of Russian intelligence.

S E E D E D C O N T E N T

Hours before President Donald Trump announced U.S. missile strikes on Syria in response to a chemical attack that killed 90 civilians in April 2017, Ed Martin said on the Russian state television network RT America that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad might not be to blame. Instead, Martin told viewers, the situation was “engineered” in Washington “by the people that want war in Syria.”

In early 2022, Martin told an interviewer on the same arm of RT’s global network that “there’s no evidence” of a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s borders, criticizing U.S. officials as warmongering and ignoring Russia’s security concerns. Russia invaded nine days later, igniting a war that continues today.

Martin is now interim U.S. attorney for D.C. and Trump’s pick to serve full time in the role. But as a conservative activist and former Missouri Republican official, he appeared more than 150 times on RT and Sputnik — networks funded and directed by the Russian government — as a guest commentator from August 2016 to April 2024, according to a search of their websites and the Internet Archive’s database of television broadcasts.

Martin did not disclose the appearances last month on a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, which asks nominees to list all media interviews. Analysis of television archives suggests he went on RT and Sputnik more often than on any major cable network during that span.

Martin’s frequent appearances, reviewed by The Washington Post, drew rebukes from some national security analysts, who accused him of amplifying anti-American propaganda on Russian outlets that the State Department last year said had moved beyond disinformation to engage in covert influence activities aimed at undermining democracies worldwide for President Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Martin’s brief tenure as top federal prosecutor in Washington has stoked controversy . Democrats accuse Martin — a Trump “Stop the Steal” organizer who has called the 2020 election and the 2016 Russian election interference investigation “hoaxes” — of violating the law and legal ethics in threatening to investigate or prosecute lawmakers , protesters , journalists and others whom he perceives as undermining Trump’s agenda.

Former U.S. national security officials and analysts said Martin’s RT and Sputnik appearances, and his failure to disclose them, raise questions about his judgment and candor. The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington is the largest in the country and has wide jurisdiction to prosecute important national security offenses, former officials said. Its leader should be alert to the threats and risks posed by Russia and other influence operations from overseas, such as the ones the office has prosecuted in recent years involving Russia and other foreign actors, they argued.

“Prior to the 2016 election, it shows a little bit of bad judgment,” said Olga Belogolova, director of the Emerging Technologies Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, who has studied Russian influence operations in the United States and Europe, including for Facebook. “Post-2016, that shows very bad judgment, because since then you cannot pretend you didn’t know what this is, because the whole world was talking about it.”

People can disagree over U.S. foreign policy, said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear policy and national security expert who has advised Democratic presidents and supports U.S. military aid to Ukraine, “but repeatedly helping Russia advance its propaganda aims by echoing its views on its state-directed media, that should be disqualifying.”

Martin’s office did not initially respond last week to questions about his appearances on RT and Sputnik, including why he did not disclose them to the Senate or whether he was compensated for them. On Tuesday, spokesman Neil McCabe said, “Mr. Martin has disclosed all of the identified links in a supplemental letter to the Senate” in the past two days.

McCabe did not explain what links he was referring to or respond to criticism about the interviews, but he said, “This is routine activity in preparation for confirmation” and referred questions to the White House.

Asked about Martin’s pro-Russian stances and media role, a White House official said: “President Trump made a brilliant choice in selecting Ed Martin to serve a full, permanent term as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. With a distinguished record of service, Ed is the perfect leader to restore law and order and make our Nation’s Capital safe and beautiful once again.”

University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer, who has criticized U.S. policies toward Russia, said in an email, “Although the U.S. government and other governments have been waging war on RT for some time, it is not illegal for an American to appear on its shows.” Absent allegations of specific wrongdoing, Mearsheimer said, “this is a matter of free speech,” and debate over Martin should focus on the substance of his statements and judgment, not where he appeared.

No evidence has emerged that Martin acted at the direction of any Russian official or entity. Rather, he is among a segment of American conservatives who appear to agree with Moscow’s geopolitical views and foreign policy aims, while embracing a worldview distrustful of U.S. institutions and experts, similar to disinformation pushed by the Kremlin.

About one month before the Ukraine invasion, Martin was asked on RT about a U.S. State Department warning that RT and Sputnik were “critical elements” in Moscow’s propaganda and disinformation efforts. Martin sided with the networks against U.S. authorities and independent American media, a frequent target of his criticism.

“They weaponize this kind of crap. … Big tech and big media are backed up by big government, and they’re forcing the message,” Martin said on Jan. 21, 2022. Blaming U.S. interests that “make money” and “increase their power” by wanting “war all the time,” he said, “There’s very few voices saying hold on, and your show and others on this network are some of those voices.”

Sixteen days after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Martin re-aired doubts on Twitter: “I’ve read that Putin is a crazy tyrant and that he’s a hero. How do you know what to believe?”

If confirmed, Martin would continue to direct an office that prosecuted advisers to Trump — including Martin allies Roger Stone and Michael Flynn — as well as Democratic lawyer Gregory B. Craig in past federal investigations into Russian influence efforts.

U.S. attorney nominations typically draw little public discussion, but Senate Democrats want a hearing and floor votes , forcing GOP leaders to decide how much time and political capital to spend on Martin. If he is not confirmed by May 20, the end of his 120-day interim appointment, judges in the U.S. District Court in D.C. will name a new interim U.S. attorney until one is confirmed.

Martin has posed a challenge for the Senate Judiciary Committee, not only because of his lack of experience as a prosecutor or trial lawyer but also because of the volume of his statements on social media and in traditional media, and the unusual extent of his omissions. Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Thursday that Martin has received more than 500 questions from senators, far more than normal.

Martin disclosed 16 media interviews to the committee from 2016 to 2024, none involving RT or Sputnik, in a questionnaire he signed March 28. He said he searched publicly available electronic databases, but he cautioned that “despite my searches, there may be other materials that I have been unable to identify, find, or remember.”

Martin has omitted far more from his nomination materials than other recent U.S. attorney nominees, two people familiar with the process said Monday, one of them estimating omissions of about 350 events, interviews and media appearances.

By comparison, only about three of roughly 80 such nominees from 2021 through 2024 left out published writings and public statements in supplemental committee disclosures, and none missed more than four items, one of the people said. Martin first disclosed three RT appearances in early April, the person said. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss Martin’s responses.

There is no formal penalty for omissions. As of Monday, Martin had not disclosed most of the RT and Sputnik appearances identified by The Post, Grassley spokeswoman Clare Slattery said, adding that “the committee expects nominees to fully disclose all required materials” and that disclosures were ongoing.

‘Secure the national interests’ of Russia

Since 2017 and 2018, the Justice Department has required RT and Sputnik to register as foreign agents, reflecting Russian government control over their operations. Five months after Martin’s final appearance last April, the United States, Canada and Britain announced new sanctions on RT and several employees meant to cripple funding for alleged disinformation operations around the world.

RT and Sputnik’s parent company “are engaged in covert influence activities aimed at undermining American elections and democracies, functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus,” then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sept. 13.

Trump won a second term last November after depicting federal investigations of him and of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election as examples of partisan Democratic “weaponization” of law enforcement and intelligence agencies against a political rival. Russia’s interference included hacking of Democratic emails as well as disinformation activity by RT and Sputnik, according to a 2017 U.S. intelligence assessment and a 2020 bipartisan Senate investigation.

Now, Trump’s second administration is pushing U.S. foreign policy officials to find ways to partner with Putin’s Russia, signaling that he is willing to part ways with allies, including by staking claims to Greenland and Canada, pressing Ukraine to seek peace, and shifting U.S. resources from Europe to focus on China.

Martin’s views in some ways track those of Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who have criticized the exercise of U.S. military power overseas. Opponents say Trump risks abandoning leadership of a liberal democratic order that spreads American values and global prosperity, siding instead with autocratic strongman governments.

Martin advocated greater U.S.-Russia cooperation before Trump’s first meeting as president with Putin, in Germany in July 2017, saying on RT that he expected Trump to come away with “some affinity with Putin.” He struck the same note just after the Ukraine invasion, as the U.S. imposed sanctions on Putin personally.

“We needed to be allies with nuclear powers like Russia,” Martin told Sputnik in March 2022, suggesting a missed opportunity under Trump’s first term. “What Trump knew was you want to be allies with the toughest dudes on the street. And he was ready to be allies with North Korea and with Putin and everybody.”

Reorganized from the former state-run Voice of Russia in 2013, Sputnik and its parent’s charter is to “secure the national interests of the Russian Federation in the information field.” That year Putin said RT and Sputnik’s purpose is to “ break the monopoly of the Anglo-Saxon global information streams.” RT America ceased U.S. operations in March 2022. Production of some of its programs continued, and they are available domestically through third-party platforms and its parent, RT.

RT and Sputnik relied on Martin to explain America in terms that seemed to match the perspective of the Kremlin, mostly to its international audiences, according to FilterLabsAI, a firm that analyzes social media, state-run news organizations and other internet postings to track public sentiment in Russia. Those audiences were in the United States and in “ hinge countries” in Central Europe such as Poland and Hungary , and Martin had minimal exposure within Russia except for his criticism of U.S. support for Ukraine, FilterLabsAI founder and CEO Jonathan Teubner said.

“We want to use these terms carefully, but this is a kind of foreign influence,” Teubner said, adding that RT is cultivating relationships with American conservative influencers and micro-influencers as Trump emerges as a leading figure in a global wave of hard-line conservative populism, inspiring nationalist parties in Europe and elsewhere.

Defending Trump

Martin has been a prolific user of social and other media to defend Trump and his policies. His presence on Russian state media puts a twist on the president’s frequent tapping of television personalities to stock his second administration.

Martin appeared as a panelist or commentator on more than a dozen RT or Sputnik programs beginning in August 2016, often introduced as a Republican strategist opposite a designated Democratic commentator. He was invited by several networks to discuss the 2016 presidential election after writing a book making the conservative case for Trump with anti-feminist icon Phyllis Schlafly.

Over time, Martin appeared as a solo guest discussing the Ukraine crisis and was described as a “co-host” on one show episode in December 2023. Russian state media at the time promoted his critiques in headlines such as one on Sputnik International’s website in April 2023, “‘Trumped-Up’ Charges Against Former US President ‘Embarrassing ’ to US,” and another in December 2023, “GOP Activist: ‘Stupid’ US Leaders Will ‘Throw Money’ at Ukraine Unless Stopped by House.”

Scores if not hundreds of American commentators have gone on RT or Sputnik over the years without being required to register as foreign lobbyists. Still, last September U.S. authorities charged two RT employees with allegedly funneling $10 million to bankroll unknowing pro-Trump influencers to publish thousands of videos that pushed Kremlin propaganda. Dual Russian-American citizens Dimitri Simes and his wife, Anastasia , were charged with violating economic sanctions, in part for his paid work for another Russia state television network. Simes has said his charges are a pretext by the U.S. government to silence him.

After taking office in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi shut down an FBI task force assigned to investigate foreign government influence on American politics, citing in part the risk of “ further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion ,” and a shift to focus on more traditional espionage cases. The RT and Simes cases remain open.

Criticizing support for Ukraine

Martin dialed back his RT commentary around the time of the registration requirement and became a CNN contributor from September 2017 to January 2018. His appearances on RT surged again in 2021, when he did roughly 60 spots, compared with 50 over the prior 4½ years. He was often asked about Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot prosecutions, three of whose defendants he represented, and mounting federal and state investigations of Trump, which he strongly and repeatedly criticized.

That fall and winter, he also spoke about Ukraine. In a flurry of 14 spots over a five-week span in 2022 before Russia’s invasion, Martin criticized what he cast as the drumbeat for war by interventionist Americans and repeated that NATO should rule out Ukrainian membership, a key Russian demand.

In October 2021, Martin on his podcast and on Twitter promoted RT; Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of RT and Sputnik; and an RT host over U.S. authorities and social and traditional media.

“Everybody’s liars in journalism now. I’m being totally serious. Not you, of course,” Martin told the RT host on his podcast.

Martin scaled back his appearances for several months after Russia’s invasion. However, he was interviewed about 40 times on RT and Sputnik between late 2022 and April 2024, shortly before he was announced as deputy policy director for the Republican National Convention’s 2024 platform committee.

On Dec. 9, 2024, one day before Trump announced that Martin would join his new administration, Martin wrote about Putin on the website of his conservative Phyllis Schlafly Eagles group. He decried the dismantling of Western civilization by “our ruling elites” and their “weak, incompetent” servants. These “mediocre” American men “despise figures like Vladimir Putin,” Martin said, “ not because he’s an enemy of the West, but because he reminds them of their inadequacies .”