CNN
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The odds that President Donald Trump’s controversial nominee to serve as US attorney for Washington, DC, reaches confirmation are rapidly diminishing as he faces public pushback from a key Republican on Capitol Hill.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a GOP swing vote, informed the White House on Monday he would not support the president’s nominee, Ed Martin, for the job.
Tillis, who serves on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee responsible for advancing Martin to a full Senate vote, also met with Martin Monday. Given the narrow margins on the panel, Tillis’ opposition could be enough to derail his nomination.
The White House insists it is standing by Martin, with the president personally lobbying lawmakers to support him. If the nomination were to fail, it would stand as a significant blow to the administration and a rare instance of congressional Republicans breaking with the president over a high-profile pick.
Last week, Tillis told CNN he has “serious questions” about the nomination, given Martin’s previous comments denigrating police officers who defended the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021, attack.
“Most of my concerns are related to January 6, and he built a compelling case on some of the 15, 12 prosecutions that were probably heat of the moment bad decisions,” he said Tuesday, adding: “Where we probably have a difference is I think anybody that breached the perimeter should have been in prison for some period of time.”
Martin did not appear on the agenda for the Senate Judiciary Committee’s meeting Thursday, setting him up to miss a critical deadline to be confirmed before his interim position expires on May 20.
“I want to put people on the agenda that I can help the president be successful in his nominees. And that’s all I can say at this point. And if you want any other information, you’re going to have to ask other members,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said of the panel not considering the nomination later this week.
Pressed on whether he did not think Martin could clear a committee vote, Grassley said, “I’m not saying that, I’m just saying that I put people on the agenda when I can help the president’s nominees to be successful.”
GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, who serve on the panel, have privately expressed concerns about supporting Martin, as CNN has previously reported. But Cornyn, who faces a tough reelection battle, said Tuesday he would vote for Martin if he came up for a committee vote.
“The president won an election on November the fifth, and I think he’s entitled to some deference on his choices,” Cornyn said.
But upon learning that Tillis was against Martin’s nomination, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said “that would suggest that he’s not probably going to get out of committee.”
The Republican leader said he would not put the nomination up for full Senate consideration if it failed to make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Obviously, we would cross that bridge if and when we came to it, but it sounds like he’s got problems committee-level,” he told CNN.
Despite the setbacks over the past 24 hours, the White House is remaining bullish on Martin’s nomination.
The president has been making calls to Republican senators on Martin’s behalf, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, and Trump officials are consulting with legislative advisors Tuesday on possible next steps to try to move the nomination forward.
“Ed Martin is a fantastic U.S. Attorney for D.C. and will continue to implement the President’s law-and-order agenda in Washington,” White House spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer said in a statement Tuesday. “He is the right man for the job and we look forward to his confirmation.”
Martin’s nomination process has been riddled with controversies since the president formally nominated him to the job in March.
Martin has had to update his mandated disclosure to Congress detailing all of his past media appearances at least three times after his initial filing failed to report appearances he had made in the past few years, including many on far-right outlets and Russian-state media.
He has also had to answer for his previous praise of a Capitol rioter who is an alleged Nazi sympathizer, despite his more recent denouncement. And he did not recall some of his most controversial past statements in response to a series of questions under oath put to him by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
During his short tenure as acting US attorney, Martin has drawn attention for having referred to the nation’s largest office of federal prosecutors as “President Trumps’ [sic] lawyers,” and demoting senior attorneys who worked on January 6, 2021, Capitol riot cases.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
