WASHINGTON — Former US pardon attorney Ed Martin likened accusations about cash for clemency plaguing President Trump’s orbit to the “Russia hoax” and lamented that the administration lost momentum from its early days to dramatically transform the government.
Martin, 56, who stepped down as pardon attorney last month, blasted a scathing “60 Minutes” report this month about the rise of so-called “pardon brokers,” who charge clients exorbitant fees to leverage their ties to Trump world and claim they can secure clemency.
“The season premiere of 60 Minutes has a story on pardons, and ‘Oh my gosh, there’s people making money on pardons,’” Martin vented on the “Pod Force One” podcast. “To me, this is like the Russia hoax.”
“I don’t believe what Leslie Stahl was peddling.”
“60 Minutes” aired hidden camera footage of the so-called “pardon brokers” Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl who touted their ability to “put pressure on the president from all directions in a consistent way, to force his hand.”
But the former pardon honcho dismissed those men as “clowns” and “snake oil salesmen” who were misleading clients about their ability to actually secure clemency.
Martin, who briefly helmed the administration’s Weaponization Working Group, recounted how he met with over 1,000 individuals during his 15-month stint to adjudicate whether clemency — a pardon or commutation — was warranted.
“Donald Trump should get credit, not blame; he should get credit for changing the way we look at commutations and pardons, because most of the presidents, Bill Clinton, [George] W. [Bush], [Barack] Obama, even [Joe] Biden, did their pardons in the dark of night on their way out the door,” he said.
During his lengthy interview with The Post’s Miranda Devine, Martin also wished that the Trump administration had pushed its agenda to transform the federal bureaucracy even more aggressively.
“I’m reminded, first of all, of our first two or three months, they were glorious,” he recalled. “We were just firing everybody, getting rid of cases. We’re pardoning everybody. The energy was up, and the fearlessness was high.”
“And after three months, everybody’s tired, and you sort of settle into a rhythm, and it changes.”
Beyond just the Justice Department, which is where he operated, Martin lamented that the since-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) wasn’t more audacious in its governmental cutting spree.
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“In retrospect, I think you have to use that first period of time to cut even deeper,” Martin reflected. “I know everybody thinks, ‘Oh, DOGE, DOGE, DOGE.’ They identified a lot, and we got rid of a lot. I’m not saying we didn’t. But that’s the window where there’s real possibilities.”
The anti-weaponization czar also reflected on his experience studying the work of former special counsel Jack Smith and other Biden administration officials.
“I looked at Jack Smith’s inbox and this guy was a real nasty planner,” Martin said. “Donald Trump was at the center of this grand thing. It would have been a show trial.”
Martin gloated that “even the left has left” former President Joe Biden, calling the 46th commander in chief “despicable.”
“At the end of his life, Joe Biden’s been sick, and there’s a lot of talk that he’s not well and all that, but I hope he hears it while he’s alive,” Martin said.
“He is one of the great frauds, and I would say that would be enough to be one of the great frauds in American history, but he’s truly one of the evil frauds of American history,” he added. “Did real evil, allowed real evil, and just a fraudulent guy.”
