House Democrats call for investigation into top DOJ officials

A coalition of House Democrats is calling for an investigation into two top Justice Department officials, arguing they violated the code of conduct in taking actions on cases in which they were previously involved.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), along with six other members, asked Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz to investigate both acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and Ed Martin, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Bove is a former member of President Trump’s criminal defense team, while Martin was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and later represented some defendants charged in connection to the riot at the Capitol.

Goldman argues Bove violated federal regulations, codes of conduct for attorneys and Justice Department guidelines by spearheading the firing of a number of DOJ and FBI officials who worked on Trump’s two criminal cases.

The Justice Department has fired a dozen prosecutors, while FBI agents involved in the investigation were escorted out of the building. The top career officials at the FBI as well as the heads of several field offices who were not directly involved in the two criminal cases were also fired.

“Despite that representation, Mr. Bove has taken a number of actions in connection to those cases, including ordering the retaliatory termination of DOJ prosecutors and FBI Special Agents who worked on those cases on the opposite side from him,” Goldman wrote.

“In Mr. Bove’s case, he is now taking actions on behalf of the United States in matters in which he previously represented the defendant, Donald Trump. Moreover, Mr. Bove has not only refused to recuse himself — as required by this DOJ regulation — but he is in fact making the ultimate decisions about the prosecutors and investigators in those cases. This blatant violation of this regulation not only warrants an investigation but brings great shame on the Department we proudly represented.”

Goldman said at a minimum, Bove should have requested a DOJ waiver to participate in the matter given his conflict of interest.

The Justice Department, Martin’s office and Horowitz’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

As for Martin, Goldman pointed to his representation of Jan. 6 defendant Joseph Padilla, who was among the 1,500 pardoned by Trump.

“On January 21, 2025, Mr. Martin, in his capacity as Interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, moved to dismiss the case against Padilla, who received a pardon from President Trump. Yet it was not until February 5, 2025, that Mr. Martin moved to withdraw from representing Padilla. In other words, Mr. Martin was the attorney of record for both parties in one case,” Goldman wrote.

“Such a brazen conflict of interest should be a case study for law school ethics courses,” he added, noting that Martin is already facing an ethics complaint with the D.C. bar association over the matter.

Martin also fired attorneys in his office who worked on the Jan. 6 investigations.

“This violation of impartiality is only made worse by the fact that, as mentioned previously, Mr. Martin personally fired the very prosecutors who not only investigated the January 6 attack as a whole, but the defendant he represented as well,” he wrote.

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