Politics
Trump Taps Former Prosecutor Who Threatened Medical Marijuana Dispensary To Lead Pardon Office
President Donald Trump has shaken up his Department of Justice (DOJ) staff, naming Ed Martin—the former federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C.—as the new U.S. pardon attorney.
The appointment of Martin, a critic of cannabis legalization who last month as acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia threatened a locally licensed medical marijuana dispensary with criminal prosecution, raises questions about how he’ll handle ongoing drug-related pardon activity at the federal level.
It’s unclear, for example, whether his harsh stance on cannabis could affect DOJ processing of applications for marijuana pardon certificates associated with the mass marijuana clemency actions by President Joe Biden.
Martin has already suggested he will review pardons the former president granted to family members and administration officials in the closing days of his term.
Speaking at a press conference after the nomination on Tuesday, Martin doubled down on his assertions that D.C.’s medical marijuana program is operating in violation of federal law.
“What gathers around these places is not healthy. It’s not helpful,” he said at a press conference Wednesday. “Again, the D.C. City Council has laws that appear to contradict federal law.”
Trump himself has lauded Martin’s work during his short time as U.S. attorney, saying on social media that the attorney did “an AMAZING job.”
He added that Martin, who is also being tapped to lead a federal Weaponization Working Group, “will make sure we finally investigate the Weaponization of our Government under the Biden Regime, and provide much needed Justice for its victims.”
Separately, the president recently named Alice Marie Johnson to serve as his “pardon czar.”
While the specific responsibilities of a pardon czar remain unclear, Johnson herself received a presidential commutation from Trump during his last term in 2018 while serving a life sentence related to cocaine trafficking charges. Trump later issued Johnson a pardon in 2020.
During his short time as the federal prosecutor in D.C., Martin—who will be replaced in the role by former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro—made waves in the cannabis world when he sent a letter to the owners of a D.C.-licensed medical dispensary, Green Theory, suggesting they could face federal criminal prosecution.
“Your dispensary appears to be operating in violation of federal law, and the Department of Justice has the authority to enforce federal law even when such activities may be permitted under state or local law,” the letter said.
Martin’s targeting of Green Theory was opportunistic, as the dispensary has also been the subject of complaints from parents and community members due to its proximity to four private schools.
While compliant with D.C. cannabis rules, Martin has said the location violates the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, which prohibits cannabis within 1,000 feet of school campuses.
“The community’s up in arms that we have cannabis—marijuana—pop-up shops and shops all over the place,” he said at the Wednesday press event.
“By the way, these aren’t Republicans. These aren’t conservatives, these family members who are saying, ‘Hey, we don’t want a pot— a store within 1,000 feet of a school,'” he added. “Those are the policies you hear when you listen to the people.”
Martin has said that while he has a good relationship with D.C.’s mayor and police chief, he didn’t notify either of them about his letter to the cannabis dispensary before sending it.
In a separate interview shortly after sending the letter, the prosecutor nevertheless emphasized the importance of local context. “You apply the facts to the law, but you do it in the context of what the community is going through at that moment,” he said.
“I want to get to the bottom of it. I think—look, my instinct is that it shouldn’t be in the community based on what I saw from the parents,” Martin continued. “But I think people and businesses deserve the opportunity to look at it and interact.”
He later sent mixed signals about his approach to prosecuting alleged violations of federal laws by licensed marijuana businesses, saying on the one hand that prohibition must be “abided by,” but specifying that cannabis operators who are not in compliance with local laws are most at risk of enforcement action.
“Anybody who is selling marijuana better have a license and everything in order, otherwise we will pursue action against them,” he said.
Green Theory, the dispensary that the prosecutor targeted in his letter, is compliant with D.C. laws, though Martin has also made the case that it is in violation of a separate federal statute that prohibits cannabis shops within 1,000 feet of schools, as is the case with the business in question.
“We should expect federal law to be abided by, and we’ll take a look at any situation where there’s questions,” Martin said. “If the law is broken, we’re going to look closely at it.”
As far as Green Theory is concerned, he said the issue was “referred to me by a citizen,” and when he investigated, “I thought the parents and the families in that community had not been heard well enough, so I thought I would go take a look at it.”
“It was referred to me by a citizen who said: ‘Have you seen this?’” Martin said. “And when I looked into it, I thought the parents and the families in that community had not been heard well enough, so I thought I would go take a look at it.”
It’s unclear how the office might proceed under Pirro, Trump’s new nominee to fill the U.S. attorney role.
In contrast to her predecessor, however, Pirro told Marijuana Moment in 2019 that her “interest in CBD stems from a curiosity after hearing people say how much they benefited from CBD.”
Pirro, who previously served as a New York judge and district attorney, said at the time that she was “excited to be a part of the opportunity for people to access fantastic wellness options that are both natural and physically and emotionally beneficial.”
“Initially a skeptic, I now understand there are tremendous benefits outside the assembly line of traditional medical and pharmaceutical dictates,” she said.
Pirro—on her CW show “Judge Jeanine Pirro” from 2008-2011—also took on several marijuana-related cases, but she didn’t appear to weigh in on substantive policy issues around cannabis.
The announcement that Pirro was joining a CBD company’s board came shortly after the host’s show was suspended by Fox News, a move that reportedly stemmed from her suggestion that the Muslim faith of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was “antithetical” to the U.S. Constitution. Fox subsequently condemned the remarks, but her show was reinstated about two weeks after the controversy.
While hemp and its derivatives were legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill that Trump signed into law during his first term, Pirro has previously indicated she won’t to be making the case for ending cannabis prohibition more broadly.
In March, the White House itself called the District’s move to decriminalize marijuana an example of a “failed” policy that “opened the door to disorder.”
In a fact sheet about an executive order that Trump signed—which is broadly aimed at beautifying the District and making it more safe—the White House listed several local policies in the nation’s capital that it takes issue with, including cannabis reform. That’s despite the president’s previously stated support for a states’ rights approach to marijuana laws.
“D.C.’s failed policies opened the door to disorder—and criminals noticed,” it says, citing “marijuana decriminalization,” as well as the District’s decision to end pre-trial detentions and enforcement practices around rioters, as examples of such policies.
The executive order itself doesn’t mention marijuana specifically. But it says the directive will involve “deploying a more robust Federal law enforcement presence and coordinating with local law enforcement to facilitate the deployment of a more robust local law enforcement presence as appropriate in areas in or about” D.C., and that includes addressing “drug possession, sale, and use.”
Recreational cannabis possession and personal cultivation is legal in D.C. under a voter-approved ballot initiative, though commercial sales of non-medical marijuana remain illegal.
During Trump’s first term in the White House, he maintained that D.C. rider to keep blocking cannabis sales in his budget requests, as did President Joe Biden.
Recently, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said she intends to “continue to fight” against efforts by her GOP colleagues to interfere with the District’s marijuana laws, vowing to again push for the removal of a spending bill rider that’s long prevented a commercial cannabis market.
Trump’s DEA Pick Refuses To Detail Marijuana Rescheduling Stance In Response To Senator’s Questions
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
