Editorial: Missourian Ed Martin has washed out of Trump's vengeance team. That's ominous

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Feb 5, 2026

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As an institution that has been watching Ed Martin’s bull plow through various political china shops for two decades now, this page doesn’t mourn his remarkable fall from grace with the Trump administration, as revealed Monday.

Several national publications report that Martin — a former Missouri right-wing gadfly who left a trail of political chaos when he was here — has been tossed as head of a task force created to persecute, er, investigate President Donald Trump’s foes. The demotion reportedly was the result of internal concern over Martin’s competence and his highly visible ethics lapses.

Getting demoted over ethics and competence is particularly embarrassing when it’s at the hands of an administration that puts so little value on either quality to begin with. And we’re hard-pressed to think of anyone who has earned this national humiliation more than Martin has.

But there’s an ominous side to this otherwise satisfying development: All indications are that Martin was removed from his post not because he was abusing the power of the Justice Department to go after Trump’s political enemies — but because he wasn’t doing it effectively enough.

Those who followed Missouri politics some years back might remember Martin as the chief of staff to then-Gov. Matt Blunt who entangled his boss in a scandal and expensive settlement by violating the state Sunshine Act, firing the staff lawyer who tried to stop him, and improperly using the state office to go after Democratic politicians.

Or they might remember him as the tea party zealot who, as Missouri GOP chairman, fractured the party by attacking fellow Republicans he considered insufficiently radical.

Or perhaps they remember him as the adviser who fractured conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly's movement by convincing her to go full-MAGA, to the dismay of her more serious-minded lieutenants.

Like all politicians, Trump claims to surround himself with "the best of the best." Obviously, "the worst of the worst" is a more accurate description of most of his inner circle. So it made some perverse sense that Trump last year tapped Martin to lead the key U.S. Attorney’s post in Washington, D.C.

Martin had zero prosecutorial experience and no real qualifications except his bottomless loyalty to Trump. Martin was so clearly unqualified that the Senate grew a rare backbone and balked at confirming him.

So Trump assigned Martin instead to a post perhaps more suited to his malicious instincts and contempt for the rule of law: He made him head of the Justice Department’s “Weaponization Working Group.”

It’s an unintentionally accurate title for the task force. It technically refers to Trump's bogus claim that the Biden administration weaponized the Department of Justice when it prosecuted Trump for genuine crimes, including his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss by flinging a mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But the real “weaponization,” of course, is being conducted by the task force itself. It has gone after those prosecutors, Trump’s critics and anyone else this power-mad president vengefully targets with his social-media thumbs.

While Trump’s blatant misuse of the DOJ as his personal retribution office has dismayed serious prosecutors, Martin took to his toxic task with typical zealotry — too much even for this administration, as it turns out.

Numerous national media outlets reported Monday that Martin was told in December he was out as head of the task force. His ouster was reportedly in part because of frustration over the DOJ’s failure to win retribution convictions against former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

In addition to those failed prosecutions, officials reportedly grew weary of Martin’s typically unethical stunts, if only for the embarrassment they’ve caused. These included Martin personally posing for a photo in front of James’ Brooklyn home in a ham-handed attempt at intimidation. The Washington Post reports that, in a rare move, the DOJ at one point investigated Martin himself over indications he had improperly divulged information about the Schiff investigation.

Martin reportedly has been re-assigned to the administration’s pardon office. But there is some speculation that his almost unmatched toadyism toward Trump could earn him a White House post. Perhaps he’ll end up as a Trumpian Rasputin, whispering dark ideas into the president’s ear about how he can more quickly transform America’s democracy into an authoritarian dystopia. Heck, adviser Stephen Miller shouldn’t have to carry that whole load himself.

But there's no indication that Martin's exit means Trump has re-thought his relentless weaponization of the DOJ. If anything, it might mean he and his team just want it done more competently. If this chilling project is able to more successfully weaponize justice in Martin’s absence, America is worse for it.