Justice Department weaponization czar Ed Martin pressed New York Attorney General Letitia James to resign during his investigation of her conduct.
Martin said he would take James’s resignation as an act of “good faith” in a letter to her lawyer.
“At this time Letitia James would best serve the good of the state and nation by resigning from office to address the issues in the referral. Her resignation from office would give the people of New York and America more peace than proceeding. I would take this as an act of good faith,” he wrote.
The words fall outside the normal bounds of prosecutors’ and investigators’ conduct. Martin has also posed for pictures outside her Brooklyn home with a New York Post photographer.
He told a neighbor he was “just looking at houses, interesting houses.”
“I wanted to lay eyes on it,” he said. “You gotta get a sense of what is actually at stake.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche were caught off guard by the Brooklyn incident and let Martin know his actions were not helpful, according to the New York Times.
Martin also appeared on Fox News to discuss the breadth of his investigation against James.
“We’re gonna go to the very bottom of the facts, and if somebody did something wrong, we’re not only gonna hold them accountable, we’re also gonna look at everything else that they’ve been doing. Because when you’re a liar, you lie not just on one thing,” Martin said on Fox News on Sunday. “When you’re a cheater, you cheat not just on one thing. When you’re doing corruption, you generally don’t just do it on one thing.”
James’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, responded to Martin’s letter on Monday. He said Martin’s conduct demonstrated he was “not conducting a serious investigation.”
“Despite the lack of evidence or law, you will take whatever actions you have been directed to take to make good on President Trump’s and Attorney General Bondi’s calls for revenge,” Lowell wrote.
Martin is also directing an investigation into Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who led congressional investigations into the 2016 election when he was a member of the House. Schiff says the investigation amounts to “stuff you see tinpot dictators do. It is designed to intimidate his political opponents and somehow try to silence them.”
Both investigations pertain to alleged mortgage fraud. Martin was appointed the special attorney in charge of investigating both cases.
A staffer familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner that Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte and his team lobbied for Martin to run the James and Schiff investigations “because they wanted him to tie up what seemed like simple cases to either prove or disprove.”
Martin has said he will “name and shame” those against whom he is unable to obtain an indictment.
“If they can be charged, we’ll charge them,” he told reporters. “But if they can’t be charged, we will name them. And we will name them, and in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are ashamed.”
ED MARTIN SAYS ‘THERE’S MORE’ ON SCHIFF BESIDES ALLEGED MORTGAGE FRAUD
Martin is the former interim D.C. U.S. attorney. The president withdrew his nomination after it became clear Martin would not receive enough Senate support to be confirmed. Jeanine Pirro was appointed as his replacement.
While he was the head attorney in Washington, he fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases and leaks related to the insurrection cases. Martin has received criticism for defending Jan. 6 offenders in the past.
Kaelan Deese contributed to this report.