DOJ’s Ed Martin accused of ethics violations for threatening Georgetown University

A legal oversight organization has accused Ed Martin, President Donald Trump’s pardon attorney, of ethics violations for sending threatening letters to Georgetown University’s law school last year while serving as the acting U.S. attorney in the district.

The D.C. Disciplinary Counsel, which polices attorney misconduct in the nation’s capital, filed formal accusations of misconduct against Martin Tuesday, saying his letters violated the university’s constitutional rights.

In a Feb. 17, 2025 letter on Department of Justice (DOJ) letterhead, Martin rebuked Georgetown Law for allegedly teaching and promoting DEI”  and said he would exclude its students from fellowships and internships in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Martin offered no examples of what teaching DEI meant in practice.

In a second letter in March, Martin threatened to take additional actions against Georgetown Law, hinting at the university’s nonprofit status and the federal funding it receives. 

In the new misconduct filing, Hamilton Fox, the disciplinary counsel for D.C. bar, said Martin’s conduct violated the First and Fifth Amendments.

“Mr. Martin’s conduct as set forth in Count I violated his oath of office as an attorney admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, in which he swore to ‘support the Constitution of the United States of America,’ and therefore is grounds for discipline,” Fox wrote.

Fox’s filing automatically initiates professional conduct proceedings against Martin, who will now have to respond. Ultimately, he could be sanctioned or disbarred.

The misconduct charges against Martin come days after the DOJ proposed a rule that, if enacted, would theoretically allow it to suspend any state ethics proceedings against current or former DOJ attorneys if the department decides to conduct its own review first.

Legal experts said the proposed rule was the DOJ’s latest attempt to limit ethical oversight like the disciplinary counsel’s charges against Martin. However, experts also noted that the rule would likely be unenforceable, as the department has no formal authority over state bar disciplinary organizations.

In the new filing, Fox also charged Martin with violating the ethical guidelines for lawyers practicing in D.C. through his abnormal response to the initial ethics complaint against him.

Phillip Argento, a retired judge, asked Fox to investigate Martin over the Georgetown Law letters in March of last year. In response to Argento’s complaint, Fox asked Martin to formally respond  to the accusations in writing.

However, Martin instead contacted the chief judge and the senior judges of the D.C. Court of Appeals and accused Fox of “uneven behavior.” He also requested a “face-to-face” meeting with the judges “to discuss this matter and find a way forward,” the complaint says.

Though the chief judge said that it would be improper to discuss the issue outside of regular procedures, Martin kept pressing, eventually demanding that the court “immediately” suspend and investigate Fox for misconduct.

Martin’s letters to Georgetown were just one of the many bombastic and norm-breaking actions he took during his brief time as acting U.S. attorney for D.C. 

In that role, Martin also sent threatening letters to scientific journals, sought a grand jury investigation into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and moved to dismiss charges against a Jan. 6 criminal defendant while he still represented the defendant as a defense attorney.

In May last year, Trump pulled Martin’s nomination for U.S. attorney after multiple Republican senators said they wouldn’t vote to confirm him because of his work defending Jan. 6 rioters and his actions as acting U.S. attorney.

Martin instead was appointed U.S. pardon attorney and has since overseen many of Trump’s controversial pardons and commutations, including the president’s blanket pardon of anyone who participated in or supported efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election.

Martin also made several strange moves as chief of the DOJ’s vague “weaponization working group.” He held a photoshoot outside of New York Attorney General Letita James’ home while she was under investigation. He also threatened to investigate a former FBI agent who responded to the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, days after holding a meeting with far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche reportedly sidelined Martin from the working group last month.