by Sharon Rondeau
(Aug. 17, 2025) — In an interview with Maria Bartiromo on today’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” DOJ Weaponization Working Group Director Ed Martin, Jr. said investigations into criminal allegations against U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James, as well as other matters, are proceeding.
After her confirmation, Martin said, Attorney General Pam Bondi instructed the Justice Department to “get to the bottom of this,” referring to Trump’s executive order claiming Joe Biden’s Justice Department was “weaponized” against certain citizens for political reasons.
“The American people have witnessed the previous administration engage in a systematic campaign against its perceived political opponents, weaponizing the legal force of numerous Federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community against those perceived political opponents in the form of investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related actions,” the executive order opens. “These actions appear oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives. Many of these activities appear to be inconsistent with the Constitution and/or the laws of the United States, including those activities directed at parents protesting at school board meetings, Americans who spoke out against the previous administration’s actions, and other Americans who were simply exercising constitutionally protected rights.”
In regard to the order, Bondi, Martin said, “gave a specific list and a broad charge.” “Attorney General Bondi has that Department of Justice spinning like a top,” he added. “We’ve got more stuff going on; a lot of it we can’t talk about because of the nature of it, but it’s going like crazy.”
Schiff and James have been accused of knowingly committing fraud when applying for mortgages in Maryland (Schiff) and in New York and Virginia (James) to obtain loan terms more favorable than would otherwise have been available.
According to the criminal referral from William J. Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in April, James indicated a five-unit apartment building she owns in Brooklyn consisted of only four units.
A New York grand jury is reportedly looking into the whether James’s civil-fraud case against Trump alleging he over-valued his assets to obtain more favorable loan terms violated Trump’s civil rights.
James and Schiff deny the allegations.
In addition to the Schiff and James cases, Marting said, “The ‘Weaponization Working Group” is looking into various aspects of how the Biden Justice Department conducted prosecutions of individuals stemming from the January 6, 2021 disturbance at the U.S. Capitol.
Further, he said, the WWG is seeking to identify and hold “accountable” the originators of the yearslong “hoax” claiming the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia coordinated to assure a win for Trump in the November presidential election.
“We know the birthday of the Russia hoax is December 8, 2016,” Martin said, referring to Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard’s July 18 press release and declassified documents claiming Barack Obama and his top intelligence advisers concocted the “Russia hoax” to thwart Trump’s ability to govern.
Later investigational findings from Special Counsel John Durham and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz did not support the predicate for the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” probe of Trump-Russia “collusion,” which clouded the first 2-3 years of Trump’s first term, if not all of it.
As far as James and Schiff, Martin told Bartiromo, “We’re going to follow the facts…we’re going to go to the very bottom of the facts, and if somebody did something wrong, we’re going to hold them accountable…When you’re a cheater, you cheat not just on one thing…”
Bartioromo reiterated that as the FBI’s probe of the Trump campaign unfolded, Schiff, then chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, publicly insisted there was “collusion in plain sight,” a claim proved patently false.
“What we’ve discovered is…that Joe Biden’s Justice Department actively targeted American citizens: Catholics who went to mass, parents who went to school boards, people who were involved in the Russia,” Martin said. “…I hear from Carter Page every now and then; Carter Page was destroyed by the Russia hoax, and we’re sitting around and pretending it’s OK to say that, you know, there was a secret meeting on December 9, 2016 in the Situation Room where they plotted the Russia hoax and then we’re going to say, ‘Oh, that was really bad.’ No. It wasn’t really bad; it needs to be held accountable in every way we can.”
Martin confirmed he was in New York “for another meeting” and went by the five-unit property James owns which she allegedly misrepresented as a four-unit on financing applications.
The federal government “targeted” citizens at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he told Bartiromo, with some later audited by the IRS and placed on “terrorism watch lists.” “They were taking massive amounts of resources and moving them from fighting child trafficking and fighting real corruption and saying, ‘We have to move everybody to look at the Capitol siege.'”
On that point, he said, Bondi “let us loose on this.”
“It was a political hoax that was driven by Garland, Lisa Monaco, and others…,” he continued, referring to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Monaco. “Some of it may not be illegal,” but “Lisa Monaco’s Justice Department [was] acting in ways we’ve never seen before.”
“The jails were used in a way to punish people,” Martin elaborated. “They didn’t do this to the terrorists after 9/11, and they were doing it to American citizens. So that’s a fulsome investigation on January 6, and it will make — clear the hoax, which is really the 2020 election hoax. We were told we couldn’t talk about it because of January 6, and the whole thing is falling apart…”
Since the November 3, 2020 election, Trump has claimed he, and not Biden, was the victor “by a lot.”
“The same people on December 9, 2016 in the Situation Room in Obama’s White House are playing the same game all these years,” he concluded.
The “Select Committee” convened to allegedly investigate the January 6 incursion is also under a microscope, Martin confirmed, who then asked if pardons issued in the last days of the Biden regime, including of some members of the January 6 Select Committee, are “legitimate,” having been “done by an autopen.”
“I’m the pardon attorney, so I’m in that, too,” Martin said. “We’re investigating how the pardons were granted. It was not like anything in the history of America…”
I disagree with the way this article attempts to bridge these two topics. Yes, the Russia hoax continued throughout his administration and beyond. However, the 2020 fraud was a completely different operation. Were people like Norm Eisen and Marc Elias working on the Russian Hoax while laying the groundwork the the fraud of 2020?
I tend to see them as entirely separate. Marc Elias was systematically perverting the election laws in key battleground states, while Norm Eisen was trying to apply the same old Color Revolution magic. I do not see how these activities are connected to the Russia Hoax, et. al.
Ed Martin’s mission is clear. That his investigation should produce such a connection seems highly unlikely. If I am missing something, I would love to hear it.
The article did not attempt to take a position that the two are connected, but rather, reiterated what Martin said precisely. It remains to be seen if his suggestion of a tie proves accurate.
Does this mean some bad people MAY go to jail?. I will soon by 82 and I would like to see something bad happen to the bad people, and I don’t mean talking them to death……. ………