Trump Official Plans to ‘Name and Shame’ Jan. 6 Prosecutors, Agents Warn of Danger

They are suing the Department of Justice because the former acting head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the nation’s capital promised to “name and shame” attorneys who worked on cases on January 6. They say this puts their safety at great risk.

There was a lawsuit against the DOJ in February by a group of anonymous federal agents. They said that President Trump’s order to make a list of department employees who were involved in the Jan. 6 cases and the failed prosecution of Trump’s alleged illegal retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate was an attempt to “purge” the agency of people he saw as political enemies. In their lawsuit, the agents said they were afraid that “all or parts of this list might be made public by Trump supporters, putting them and their families in immediate danger of retaliation by the now-pardoned and free Jan. 6 convicted felons.”

It is important to note that the DOJ has said it cannot promise that the list will not be made public by other federal government entities or agencies.

These agents told U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb on Thursday that Ed Martin’s public comments on Tuesday have put them in even more danger. Martin was named Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia by Trump, even though federal prosecutors know him as a “egregiously unqualified political hack.”

The filing says, “Mr. Martin’s statements add new, important facts that the Court should consider while it considers Plaintiffs’ requested relief.”

Martin is now the head of the DOJ’s “Weaponization Working Group” and an associate deputy attorney general. He used to be the top lawyer in Washington, D.C. Trump said Martin’s job is “very important” because he “will make sure we finally investigate the weaponization of our government under the Biden Regime and provide much needed justice for its victims.”

Lawyers for the claimants say Martin told a press conference on Tuesday that he would “name and shame” the prosecutors as “captain” of the new group if they couldn’t be charged with a crime.

It says that Martin said the following in the filing:

It’s not possible that some part of the system is stopping the truth from getting out. If the guidebook or the law says to look at it, do so. Yes, all of the people charged on January 6 want all of their papers back. This is me, telling you this. They want all of the video to be made public. We told them that wouldn’t work. When we think about how the system works, we need to be serious. If you want to sue, there is a way to do it, but we need to take it seriously, just like we need to take truth seriously. There are some very bad people. Some people did awful things to Americans. We will charge them if we can. We will name them though if they can’t be charged. We’ll call them out, and in a society that values shame, they should be shamed people. That is a fact. That’s how things work. That being said, that’s how I think the job works.

The plaintiffs say Martin’s goal is “unmistakable,” and they say his plan to “name and shame” is “how [he] thinks the job works.”

As the filing also says, “It confirms that DOJ leadership values their version of the ‘truth coming out’ over’some procedure.'” This position is “particularly relevant where Mr. Martin is widely known to believe, and has publicly stated, the January 6th insurrection was a ‘fraud’ and a ‘hoax’ orchestrated by the FBI,” the filing adds.

The plaintiffs also say that Martin’s promise shows that “DOJ leadership is in regular contact” with the defendants from January 6 who have been “begging” the DOJ to reveal details like the names of the prosecutors who worked on those cases.

The plaintiffs said in the filing that a New York Times story said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi gave the Department of Government Efficiency access to the list through DOJ systems. The Department of Government Efficiency is an unofficial part of the Trump administration that is run by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

The plaintiffs have asked Cobb, who was appointed by Joe Biden, to tell the DOJ to destroy the list and stop them from sharing it.

The court docket shows that Cobb told the DOJ to respond to the plaintiffs’ filing by Wednesday.

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