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On Thursday, President Donald Trump pulled his nomination of Ed Martin to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia after facing insurmountable opposition in the Senate. Martin made his name attempting to overturn the 2020 election, then zealously advocating for Jan. 6 insurrectionists; he has served as interim U.S. attorney for D.C. since Jan. 20, transforming that office into a weapon of presidential retribution against everyone who has crossed MAGA. At once menacing and clownish, Martin consistently tripped over his own incompetence, mendacity, and ignorance, ultimately dooming his chances of confirmation. He will, however, be replaced by Jeanine Pirro, a Fox News host who shares Martin’s sycophantic devotion to Trump and obsessive hostility toward his adversaries.

Mark Joseph Stern: Martin is the first Trump nominee since Matt Gaetz to be rejected by the Senate, and that in itself is a victory. It proves, after the confirmation of Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr., that there still is a line. And I think we can all understand why that line was Ed Martin. He had no training or experience as a prosecutor. He denied that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. He then vigorously advocated for Jan. 6 insurrectionists, calling them “patriots.” He befriended one insurrectionist who was a Nazi sympathizer, calling him an “extraordinary man” and an “extraordinary leader,” then lied about his relationship with this guy to the Senate.

Once Martin was installed in the U.S. attorney’s office, he worked on dismissing the cases of insurrectionists whom he had himself represented in private practice , a flagrant violation of Justice Department rules. He fired, suspended, and demoted Jan. 6 prosecutors who did nothing wrong. He sent threatening letters to multiple Democratic lawmakers, including Chuck Schumer, over their protected political speech. He threatened Georgetown Law for allegedly promoting and teaching diversity, prompting a smackdown from Dean William Treanor. He threatened to prosecute journalists and other people who spoke critically about Elon Musk and DOGE. He had a constant stream of embarrassing, basic errors in court that revealed he had no idea how to do his job.

So Martin was a nightmare and a disaster. And for the Senate to draw the line here is a good thing, but it’s pretty disturbing that it was so close: In the end, it was just Tillis—the Republican from North Carolina— who ensured that Martin’s nomination would be defeated in committee. There was not a groundswell of other Republican senators all saying, “We can’t support this guy.” It wound up being pretty close, but thankfully, he is now out of D.C.

But he’s also back in with a new gig at the DOJ, right?

Yes. He will now lead Attorney General Pam Bondi’s new task force on the “weaponization” of federal law enforcement. He will also be an associate deputy attorney general and the pardon attorney, since Trump fired the previous one . I suppose that means he gets to pick criminal defendants to pardon—probably Republicans who were corrupt in ways Trump likes. He’ll have sweeping power to pluck them out and recommend clemency. He will also be investigating and harassing people like Jack Smith—who prosecuted Trump. And he can continue to punish Jan. 6 prosecutors from his former office, people he has already demoted, suspended, or fired. He could attempt to investigate them for allegedly abridging the civil rights of insurrectionists by prosecuting them for ransacking the Capitol.

This new position does not require Senate confirmation. So Martin doesn’t have to worry about Republican senators balking. He can continue his reign of terror from a different position. But at least the good people of D.C. probably no longer have to worry about Eagle Ed and his goons banging down their doors because they tweeted something mean about Elon Musk.

Right, but they do have to worry about Pirro banging down their door. Pirro is probably more qualified than Martin, given her long-ago experience as a prosecutor, even though she is, to be clear, a sitting Fox News host. How does Trump make her U.S. attorney without Senate confirmation?

The same way he did with Martin: by having the AG appoint them as “interim” U.S. attorneys. They can serve for 120 days, exercising the full power of the office. But if they have not been confirmed at the end of those 120 days, they have to step down. That’s why Pirro can do this. An interim U.S. attorney, by the way, is different from an acting U.S. attorney, which is a different position. Acting U.S. attorneys can serve for longer—210 days—but they must have been confirmed by the Senate to a different position first, or previously served in a high-ranking post. Pirro was not, so she faces the 120-day clock, just like Martin did.

Unless she’s confirmed by the Senate before the clock is up, right? Then she gets to serve out the rest of Trump’s term.

That’s right, though it’s not clear to me whether she wants to spend the next three and a half years doing this job. It certainly doesn’t pay as well as a Fox News hosting gig. This feels like a troll move by Trump. And I think it’s quite possible that his new plan is to appoint a rotating series of unqualified crazy people to be interim U.S. attorney for D.C. rather than trying to nail down a qualified professional who could fill the role for the rest of their term. That’s just my guess; maybe she really wants the job and there may well be enough Republican senators to get her across the finish line.

At least, unlike Martin, she does have experience as a prosecutor.

Yes, though that was a long time ago. And in recent years, she has been very, very crazy. She actively denied Biden’s victory in 2020; an executive producer at Fox News described her as a “reckless maniac” who is “nuts,” promotes “conspiracy theories,” and “should never be on live television.” She has said horribly Islamophobic things about Ilhan Omar to the point that she got suspended by Fox News, and that’s a pretty high bar. She has said wildly inappropriate things about prosecutors who took on Donald Trump, calling for a “cleansing” of the FBI and the Justice Department, and claiming that those people needed to be led out “in handcuffs.”

So Pirro will, I think, continue Ed Martin’s reign of terror over that office. She will continue to purge people who oppose Trump and are not entirely on board with his fascist cult of personality. The biggest difference is that she had some experience as a prosecutor in the ’90s, so we can’t write her off as utterly unqualified. But she has become fully radicalized between then and now. She is not a real prosecutor; she is today very much a talking head, one who has spread crazy, unforgivable lies about the 2020 election and made it clear that she will be a foot soldier for Trump and nothing else.

It’s so interesting, because you describe her as a trolly pick, but of course, Ed Martin was also a trolly pick. And it does lead you to wonder: In 120 days, who’s next? Krusty the Clown ? I don’t know, but it’s not as though Trump ever says “I will reach higher.” He only reaches lower.