Justice Department (DOJ) official and one of Donald Trump‘s closest allies, Ed Martin, has been formally accused of professional misconduct for sending a threatening letter last year to Georgetown Law School’s dean. Martin was the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia when he sent the letter to the school regarding its diversity policies.
Now, Martin has been charged by the office that enforces ethics standards for attorneys. In the letter he had sent, Martin mentioned that the office would not hire any students from the school if the authorities did not drop their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Disciplinary Counsel Hamilton Fox has filed the ethics charges against Martin, who is now being accused not only of violating his oath of office but also of violating the Constitution’s rights to free speech and due process. While Martin and his attorney did not immediately respond to the matter, he now has 20 days to formally reply in writing.
DOJ’s Ed Martin faces ethics charges from disciplinary office over threatening letter to Georgetown University. https://t.co/b4I1gjOKXV
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 10, 2026
While Martin is the only one being accused of threatening behavior for now, the grounds on which he has been accused might also apply to another Donald Trump ally, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Being one of Trump’s favorite attorneys, Pirro has similar actions to those of Martin, as former federal prosecutor Harry Litman pointed out during an episode of the All Rise News podcast.
For instance, Pirro had tried to indict six sitting members of Congress for telling military members that they were not obliged to follow unlawful orders. As Litman said, “On the one hand, the similarity is just the arrogance of it and the thinking, ‘It doesn’t matter what the law says; we have this sort of cloak of invulnerability.’”
He then added, “Even to this day, when courts rule against them, the immediate refrain is, ‘You’re not letting the president do what he was elected to do,’ as if he was elected to violate the Constitution.”
Litman also pointed out that Attorney General Pam Bondi is also aware that Martin’s case might impact Pirro. Therefore, she has proposed a rule that would require the DOJ to intervene in state disciplinary actions by the American Bar Association.
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Explaining the move, Litman called it “hyper aggressive” and added,
“They have the criminal stuff covered; they hope they have the civil stuff covered with the Supreme Court; the last thing they have is Bar discipline. And the law says … that state Bars can discipline you.”
The DOJ has released a statement regarding the accusations against Martin and that the complaint is a “partisan organization’s agenda” against Trump. The statement added, “Let us not forget that DC-barred members of Biden’s special counsel were found to have acted against President Trump without legal authority and in clear violation of the Constitution, yet the bar did nothing.”
