Trump loyalist Ed Martin is leaving the Justice Department to focus on election 'legal battles'

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ed Martin, a loyal White House ally who held multiple Justice Department posts despite unconventional tactics that sometimes rankled his superiors, is leaving President Donald Trump's administration, the Republican president said Friday.

Trump said in a social media post that Martin is leaving his role as the Justice Department's pardon attorney to “fight Legal Battles” surrounding this year's midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election.

“I know he will do an outstanding job, ensure Free, Fair, and Honest Elections, and strongly advance our Constitutional Rights,” Trump wrote.

Martin has been a controversial Trump administration figure since his appointment last year as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, where he oversaw the dismissal of Jan. 6 cases after Trump's sweeping pardons. Trump later pulled Martin's nomination for the job over bipartisan concerns about his lack of prosecutorial experience and support for rioters who violently attacked the Capitol.

He then moved to Justice Department headquarters as pardon attorney and director of a group tasked with scrutinizing actions by President Joe Biden's administration that Republicans say unfairly targeted conservatives. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi also named him a special attorney to help conduct mortgage fraud investigations into Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

He often raised eyebrows during his tenure. In one instance, while conducting his mortgage fraud investigation into James, he sent her a letter urging her to resign from office “as an act of good faith.” He also posed for photos outside her Brooklyn home.

The Justice Department's case against James was dismissed after the judge found that another prosecutor who brought the charges was illegally appointed.

Martin was later sidelined amid clashes with Justice Department leadership and was removed as head of the “Weaponization Working Group,” though he kept his title as pardon attorney.

In a social media post Friday, Attorney General Todd Blanche called Martin a “patriot who loves this nation.” Martin didn't immediately respond to a message Friday, but on his X account he reposted Trump's announcement with the message: “Proud to serve. Fight Fight Fight.”

Before his nomination as D.C. U.S. attorney, Martin was a leader of Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement. He spoke at a rally in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and later served on the board of a nonprofit that raised money to support Capitol riot defendants and their families.

Trump’s post is the latest sign of his obsession with voting in the upcoming midterm elections, which will determine control of the U.S. House and Senate for the final two years of his presidency.

His administration has fixated on messaging around noncitizen voting, a rare problem that Trump falsely insists is a widespread source of fraud. His Department of Justice has been trying to gather detailed state voter data to hunt for noncitizens, and he has been pushing Congress to pass a bill that would require documentary proof of citizenship to vote in time for the November elections.

The FBI has obtained voting records or election equipment from the most populous counties in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia and Michigan without saying what it was searching for. Trump also has issued two executive orders seeking to take control of certain election operations, even though the Constitution grants states and Congress the authority to determine election rules.

Democratic state officials have been raising alarms about the possibility of the administration deploying federal immigration agents to polling places or ordering the military to voting locations or election offices, although administration officials have said they have no such plans.

FILE - Ed Martin speaks at an event at the Capitol in Washington, June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A small plane crashed on its second attempt to land in heavy fog at a remote military airport in Alaska, killing all eight people aboard, federal investigators said Friday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilots could not see the runway and had to rely entirely on instruments as they tried to land Thursday at the Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site Airport about 450 miles (725 kilometers) west of Anchorage.

The two pilots and six passengers who died in the crash around midday Thursday were not immediately identified. Two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees were among those killed.

The radar site was built in the 1950s as part of a network designed to provide early warning of a missile attack by the Soviet Union. Today, it monitors the skies off the coast in the direction of Russia, North Korea and China.

The site has a gravel airstrip built on the slope of a mountain. The Federal Aviation Administration recommends that pilots use GPS and other instruments when they land there.

Those on board were “dedicated professionals carrying out a vital mission in a demanding environment," U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Davis, commander of Alaskan Command, the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region and Eleventh Air Force, said in a statement.

“This is a devastating loss for our military family and the communities we serve,” Davis said.

Weather conditions were changing Thursday as heavy fog rolled through the area. An automated observation system not far from the airport reported a low cloud ceiling, fog and visibility of about 10 miles (16 kilometers) in the minutes before the crash, but the next update about 15 minutes after the crash showed visibility reduced dramatically to less than one-quarter mile (0.40 kilometer), according to Carrie Haisley, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service's Alaska sector operations center.

The airport is a private military site managed by the Pacific Air Forces Regional Support Center. It’s part of a network of remote radar sites that tracks aircraft operating in Alaska’s airspace and along its borders, the statement from Alaskan Command said.

The outpost at Cape Newenham closed in 1983 after a new radar was installed, and now the site is visited only occasionally by civilian contractors who perform maintenance on the system.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the two employees who died were part of a “project delivery team en route to a project site in support of the U.S. Air Force.” The statement did not provide additional details about the work.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were traveling to the scene Friday.

Investigators will want to know whether the pilots declared an emergency or whether the plane simply went missing before the crash, as well as the weather conditions at the time, said Mike O’Donnell, who oversaw airport safety programs and accident investigations for much of his 17 years at FAA.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska posted online that the flight was operated by Security Aviation, an airplane charter company based in Anchorage.

The company did not immediately respond Friday to an email seeking comment.

“I join Alaskans in offering condolences as we learn of the plane crash in Cape Newenham,” Murkowski posted Thursday night. “I’ve traveled extensively with Security Aviation throughout Alaska, and have met many of their experienced pilots."

Associated Press writer Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report. Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.

FILE - The National Transportation Safety Board logo and signage are seen at a news conference at NTSB headquarters in Washington, Dec. 18, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)