Trump's DOJ 'weaponization' chief slams GOP senator 'under the spell' of Jan. 6 'hoax'
Ed Martin, the former interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., lashed out at the Republican senator who derailed his nomination over the Jan. 6 riot.
In an interview with right-wing host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, Martin said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) had confronted him for organizing the "Stop the Steal" protest of Jan. 6, 2021.
"When I met with him [for] 90 minutes, he railed on J6," Martin recalled. "He said, how could you represent J6 people? How stupid do people have to be to go into the Capitol and blah, blah, blah."
"And I said, sir, you know, look, I've looked at this closely. It feels like you're not quite paying attention to what happened, right?" he continued. "You know, Tucker, this is what I mean by this is the fight we're in, this fight for the future of our country, millions of Americans are [falling] victim to the hoaxes, one after another."
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"And if you fall victim to the J6 hoax that it was an insurrection, armed and this close to the end, then you might act like Thom Tillis and you might rant and rave and say things like that, and that's what he did."
Martin insisted people who were not "under the spell of the hoax" could see that rioters were "waved into the Capitol."
After Tillis indicated that he would not vote to approve Martin, Trump appointed Alina Habba as interim U.S. attorney. The president then named Martin as head of the Justice Department's "Weaponization Working Group," which will investigate people who prosecuted Jan. 6 defendants, including Trump.