The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Grassley, is weighing his options on the nomination of Ed Martin to be the top Washington, D.C., federal prosecutor. He tells The New York Sun that reporters will have to wait and see. 

Mr. Martin’s nomination was put in jeopardy Tuesday when Senator Tillis — a member of the Judiciary Committee — said he could not support the nominee given his backing of those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

“If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any district except the district where January 6th happened — the protest happened — I’d probably support him,” Mr. Tillis told reporters. “But not in this district.”

The Judiciary Committee has 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. With Mr. Tillis voting no, the committee vote for Mr. Martin will be 11 to 11, meaning it will not be reported favorably to the floor. Mr. Grassley could still hold the vote only for it to fail, which would then require the Senate to take a procedural vote to bring Mr. Martin’s nomination to the floor, which Democrats could delay over the period of several days, eating up even more time of the Senate calendar. 

Mr. Grassley tells the Sun that he will not disclose his plans, though he is clearly leaving his options open. 

“You’re just gonna have to wait us out because I want the president to have wins, and I’ve gotta make sure I have the votes to have wins,” Mr. Grassley says. When asked if he had spoken to the president about the nomination, he said he does not disclose private conversations. 

Mr. Martin is one of conservatives’ favorite Trump appointees, due in part to his aggressive style in going after Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies. After being appointed as acting U.S. attorney on January 20, 2025, Mr. Martin dismissed dozens of prosecutors involved in the cases against January 6 defendants, and opened an investigation into Senator Schumer’s past comments about the Supreme Court. 

The acting prosecutor further threatened Georgetown University, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the New England Journal of Medicine with potential investigations in various letters. 

In an even more troubling disclosure for some senators, Mr. Martin has recently said he was a frequent guest on Russian state media. 

Mr. Trump seemed unbothered by Mr. Tillis’s comments, saying that all senators have to vote their consciences. “It’s disappointing,” Mr. Trump said when asked in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “But, that’s really up to the senators. If they feel that way, they have to vote the way they vote. They have to follow their heart and they have to follow their mind.” 

Senators’ concerns about Mr. Martin’s ability to serve as the capital’s top prosecutors has been met with a strong reaction from conservatives. Shortly before the North Carolina senator voiced his concerns, a coalition of 23 Republican state attorneys general wrote to senators, urging them to support Mr. Martin’s nomination. 

“To put it bluntly, the District of Columbia is broken. And four years of alleged corruption, mismanagement, and derelictions of duty in the U.S. Attorney’s Office under President Biden’s appointees are in many ways to blame,” the GOP attorneys general write. “The District should be made safe again.”

The lead author of that letter is Texas’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is now running against Senator Cornyn in the 2026 Republican primary. Mr. Cornyn would not commit to supporting Mr. Martin when asked by the Sun on Tuesday.