TRANSCRIPT
Four years on from the January 6 riots in Washington DC, lawyer Ed Martin is no longer defending those accused of storming the Capitol.
He's working inside the Department of Justice - but is still focused on that day.
“The president has given me a new assignment as the Director of the Weaponisation Working Group, a group that has been working already for some two months and of which I am a part of.”
A longtime conservative activist, Mr Martin helped organise the so-called 'Stop the Steal' movement, a failed effort to pressure courts and Republican lawmakers to overturn Donald Trump's defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
He and his allies have long pushed unsubstantiated claims portraying the rioters as victims of politically motivated prosecutions.
And now in his new role, Mr Martin has been drafting a previously undisclosed report re-examining the Capitol attack.
“The docket is broad all across the country and in fact across the world, where government was used against the citizens, weaponised against the people. We have a job to do and we're going to do it.”
As that report is prepared, Mr Martin and other Justice Department officials have held talks individually with at least three people charged in the Capitol attack since Donald Trump’s inauguration.
And during those meetings, the former defendants have urged officials to pursue charges against the prosecutors, FBI agents and judges who presided over their cases.
Christopher Quaglin is one of them.
He's a member of the far right group the Proud Boys - someone prosecutors had said in a court filing had attacked police officers over and over again on January 6, after forcing his way through police lines.
“I was there at January 6 to have my voice be heard. I thought it was going to be bigger than what it was, not just a protest. I, there were things going over internet and everything else. It turned out to be a protest. So I said: Okay, fine, let's protest.”
Quaglin was ultimately sentenced to 12 years in prison for assaulting officers, robbery, obstruction and civil disorder.
But the electrician from New Jersey - who now lives in Florida - maintains the official account of the Capitol siege was fabricated, and he is intent on rewriting it.
“People were pissed that day, as they should be. But to name it an insurrection is un-American.”
The Capitol riot investigation involved at least 200 federal prosecutors, and at least 46 of them have been fired or resigned since Mr Trump’s inauguration - including Matthew Beckwith.
“We also realised that the new incoming US attorney who had been someone who promoted the stop the steal lie and then someone who came in and said, you know, we immediately need to act. He had been a January 6 defence attorney. We also realised that there was a good - I began to suspect there was a good chance that we would be fired.”
He's over half a dozen January 6 prosecutors to have spoken out, fearing that the report and Mr Martin’s investigators could allege widespread wrongdoing by Capitol riot prosecutors when they say they were simply following the evidence, in the pursuit of non-partisan accountability.
They’re concerned a pretext will be created to take legal action against them or to justify government payouts to rioters.
Quaglin has already filed an administrative claim with the Justice Department — which is a formal request for compensation - asking for US$150 million for what he contends were violations of his civil rights after being pardoned by Mr Trump.
“Trump absolutely saved my life... I would never have made it 12 years.”
Former January 6 prosecutors also fear further physical violence.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department spokesperson has condemned political violence, saying any violence targeting current or former government officials is wrong and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
But five days after his sacking, Matthew Beckwith says rioters posted a list on X naming himself and at least 88 other January 6 prosecutors, along with calls for them to be fired or jailed.
Mr Beckwith also says one user replied with a photo of a noose, suggesting prosecutors should be hanged.
“I'm under no illusion that anyone needs to like their prosecutor. That's a very natural thing for you know, a defendant to not like their prosecutor to not like what's happening to them. I understand that. For that to suddenly be coming from inside the Department of Justice and to be for this extraordinary example of political violence to be normalised and legitimated - that was what was most shocking to me.”
Another pardoned rioter is Treniss Evans.
A news report on the eve of his being pardoned by Donald Trump outlined some of what he did on January 6, which included using a megaphone to beckon other rioters inside the Capitol.
“FBI records say that Evans climbed through a broken window of the capital. Charging records show that he took shots of fireball inside of Nancy Pelosi's office.”
Evans has met Mr Martin and other Justice Department officials, though a Justice Department spokesperson has said Mr Martin “may have met him at some point but does not recall a formal meeting".
While Evans pleaded guilty in 2022 to unlawfully entering the Capitol, he now argues that the rioters were victims of a weaponised legal system.
He has founded Condemned USA, an advocacy group for January 6 defendants.
“Nobody was interested in burning down the Capitol. That's my Capitol, it's your Capitol, it belongs to every single American citizen in these United States, regardless of your political ideology, religious affiliation, et cetera, et cetera. What took place and what the lie that is... is so many people were there just to peacefully demonstrate.”
While the former January 6 prosecutors - and a mixture of Republican and Democratic officials remain horrified by what is happening in the Justice Department, Ed Martin is pressing on.
As for Treniss, he says his only regrets were the whiskey he drank inside the office of Nancy Pelosi - and a subpar rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner he performed during the riot.
“I will apologise for drinking my poor choice of cheap whiskey - cinnamon whiskey fireball - and I will apologise for my off-key, off-tone, horrific rendition of the national anthem. But I'll still sing it proudly anywhere and anytime I damn well please.”
