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New top prosecutor for DC advocated for Jan. 6 rioters and echoed Trump's false 2020 election claims

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New top prosecutor for DC advocated for Jan. 6 rioters and echoed Trump's false 2020 election claims


WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, conservative activist Ed Martin has promoted Donald Trump’s false claims about a stolen 2020 election, railed against the prosecution of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol and represented some of them in court.

Now he’s leading the office that prosecuted the nearly 1,600 defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot before Trump — now back in the White House — ended the largest investigation in Justice Department history with the stroke of a pen.

Martin’s first week as the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia ushered in a dizzying sea change for the office’s rank-and-file prosecutors. He oversaw the dismissals of hundreds of Jan. 6 cases and celebrated Trump’s pardons for police officers and anti-abortion activists who had been prosecuted by attorneys in the office. And on Monday, Martin ordered an internal review of prosecutors’ use of a felony charge brought against hundreds of Capitol rioters, directing employees to hand over files, emails and other documents, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press.

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The appointment of Martin, the former head of the Missouri Republican Party, underscores Trump’s commitment to installing loyalists in key positions at the Justice Department, which the Republican president contends was “weaponized” against him and his supporters by President Joe Biden’s administration. Mike Davis, a Trump ally, called Martin in a social media post a “bold and fearless” leader who will “clean house” at the office, which Davis described as “an epicenter of the lawfare and political persecution.”

Martin told employees in an email that he was alongside Trump in the Oval Office when the president granted clemency last week to two Washington police officers prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office for their roles in the deadly chase of a man on a moped and the subsequent cover-up. And in a social media post last week, Martin appeared to describe federal prosecutors as “the President’s lawyers.”

“Based on the public reporting, it appears that he is in this role purely to execute on the president’s political priorities more so than the work of protecting public safety in Washington,” said Alexis Loeb, who was deputy chief of the section that prosecuted the Jan. 6 cases before leaving the government last year.

It’s unclear whether Trump intends to nominate Martin to the permanent post, which would require Senate confirmation. A White House spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a text message about Martin on Monday.

Prosecutors were directed last week to refer to Martin in court papers simply as “U.S. Attorney Ed Martin” after some filed documents describing him as the “acting” top prosecutor, according to a former federal prosecutor who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of persistent threats of violence.

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Shortly after Trump’s sweeping clemency order, Martin’s name showed up last on a flurry of court filings seeking to dismiss the pending Jan. 6 prosecutions, including cases against people charged with assaulting police officers.

One week later, Martin announced a “special project” to review the use of an obstruction felony charge brought against hundreds of Capitol riot defendants. Prosecutors had to drop the obstruction of an official proceeding charge in many cases after a Supreme Court ruling last year limiting the offense, finding it must include proof that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy documents.

Calling the use of the charge “a great failure of our office,” Martin ordered attorneys to hand over to two supervisors all relevant “files, documents, notes, emails and other information,” according to a copy of the email reviewed by the AP. He ordered the supervisors to provide a preliminary report on the matter to him by Friday.

“We need to get to the bottom of it,” Martin wrote. He’s calling it the “1512 Project,” because the offense falls under that section of the law.

Trump’s clemency action led to the release of more than 200 people in federal custody, including people seen on camera engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police and violently attacking law enforcement with makeshift weapons.

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Vice President JD Vance, who previously said violent rioters should “obviously” not be pardoned, defended Trump’s action in a CBS interview that aired Sunday. Vance alleged, without providing evidence, that the Jan. 6 defendants were “denied constitutional protections.”

Ashley Akers, who prosecuted dozens of Jan. 6 cases before leaving the Justice Department on Friday, said Vance is “misleading the American public in an attempt to excuse the unjustifiable blanket pardon of rioters who overtook the United States Capitol.”

“It’s telling that he has not identified a single example of how these defendants’ constitutional rights have been violated,” Akers said. “The evidence in the public record speaks for itself.”

After Trump’s clemency order, Martin urged a judge to drop restrictions barring Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and several other Jan. 6 defendants from entering Washington and the Capitol building. Martin said that if a judge barred visits to Washington from people pardoned by Joe Biden — like the former president’s brother, Jim, or Gen. Mark Milley — “I believe most Americans would object.”

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta changed course Monday, ruling that Rhodes and other Oath Keepers with commuted prison sentences are not bound by the travel restrictions he ordered last week.

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Martin spoke at a “Stop the Steal” rally on the eve of the riot and served on the board of a group called the Patriot Freedom Project, which has raised money to support Jan. 6 defendants and their families. Court filings listed him as an attorney for at least three Capitol riot defendants, including a Proud Boys member who pleaded guilty to felony charges.

A day before the Capitol riot, Martin led an audience in a “Stop the Steal” chant during a rally in Washington, D.C.

“What they’re stealing is not just an election. It’s our future and it’s our republic,” he told the crowd.

The next day, Martin attended Trump’s Jan. 6 rally near the White House and posted messages on social media about the crowd.

“I’m at the Capitol right now,” Martin tweeted after the riot erupted. “Rowdy crowd but nothing out of hand. Ignore the #FakeNews.”

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On a blog, he has parroted some of Trump’s rhetoric about the deep state, a politically weaponized Justice Department and the events of Jan. 6, 2021. Martin said he has watched thousands of hours of video from that day.

“And, if you watch it for a while you realize that 99.9% of it is normal people doing normal things: sauntering around and through the Capitol grounds and building,” he wrote.



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Washington DC plane crash live: flight data and cockpit voice recorders recovered, officials say

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Washington DC plane crash live: flight data and cockpit voice recorders recovered, officials say


Key events

What caused this tragic aviation disaster is not yet known, but the National Transportation Safety Board investigators has said it will have a preliminary report within 30 days.

Despite the lack of clarity, newly inaugurated US president Donald Trump has accused his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden of lowering hiring standards and suggested the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity push could have weakened its capabilities.

The comments come as president Trump has pushed back against what he has described as the “woke policies” of his predecessor.

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US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference on an aircraft collision at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on 30 Janunary, 2025. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

Asked if the crash was caused by diversity hiring, he said: “It just could have been.”

The Trump administration has not provided any proof to back these assertions, and there is no evidence that efforts to make the federal workforce more diverse have compromised air safety.

Following the crash, Trump signed an executive order on aviation safety that rolls back diversity initiatives and repeated claims without evidence that those initiatives contributed to Wednesday’s fatal collision.

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Satellite images of earlier recovery efforts

A satellite image shows an overview of the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and crash recovery operations in progress in the Potomac River after a Black Hawk helicopter struck the American Eagle Flight 5342, an American Airlines passenger jet, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 30, 2025. Photograph: Maxar Technologies/Reuters

A closer view below:

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A satellite view shows recovery operations in progress in the Potomac River, in Washington
A satellite image shows runway 33 and crash recovery operations in progress in the Potomac River after a Black Hawk helicopter struck the American Eagle Flight 5342, an American Airlines passenger jet, near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 30, 2025.
Photograph: Maxar Technologies/Reuters
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It’s almost 10pm in Washington DC, and almost 24 hrs since a fatal mid-air collision between a regional passenger jet and a US Black Hawk military helicopter – a tragedy that has been described as one of the worst aviation disasters in the US in decades.

There were 67 people on board both aircraft, and there are no survivors.

The wreckage of an Army helicopter lies in shallow water after it collided with an American Airlines jet and both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River in Washington DC on Thursday, 30 January, 2025. All 67 people aboard the two aircraft died in the crash late Wednesday, officials said. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

Washington’s fire and emergency department said its divers had searched all accessible areas and would conduct additional searches to locate aircraft components on Friday.

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Opening summary

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Wednesday’s night’s collision between a regional passenger jet and a military helicopter near Washington DC’s Reagan airport.

The flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been recovered from the American Airlines flight, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has announced, and they are now at the NTSB’s labs for evaluation.

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The NTSB said earlier on Thursday that it was too soon to determine the causes of the disaster and pledged to release a preliminary report within 30 days.

Early scrutiny focused on an initial Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report on the incident which called the staffing levels at a DC air control tower “not normal,” since one controller was reportedly handling both helicopters and planes.

But the Associated Press and CNN have both reported that sources told them this level of staffing was, in fact, “normal” or “not uncommon.” The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of air traffic controllers and identified fatigue as a factor that might lead to mistakes, the Associated Press noted.

Here’s a summary of other developments:

  • With the 67 people aboard both the American Airlines flight and the army Black Hawk helicopter all presumed dead, the collision is being called “the deadliest aviation disaster” in the US since 2001. At least 28 bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River, with recovery operations ongoing.

  • A day before Wednesday night’s midair collision near Reagan airport, a different jet there had to abort its landing and make a second approach after a helicopter appeared near its flight path, the Washington Post reported.

  • The US army saw an increase in very serious aviation incidents during the last fiscal year, with 15 flight and two ground incidents that resulted in deaths of service members, destruction of aircraft, or more than $2.5m in damage to the airframe, the Associated Press reported,

  • Donald Trump and members of his administration claimed, without evidence, that diversity efforts at the FAA under the Biden and Obama administration could be to blame for the crash, with Trump specifically claiming that the FAA had been accused of being “too white,” and suggesting efforts to hire Americans with disabilities were irresponsible.

  • Trump signed an executive order that rolls back diversity initiatives to stop “woke policies” in federal aviation.

  • The Trump administration’s choice to draw an unfounded connection between a deadly tragedy and diversity initiatives at a press conference sparked broad condemnation from Democratic politicians. They called the comments “disgusting,” “despicable,” and “racist,” with Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries saying that Trump was “blaming women and people of color for the deadly plane crash.”

  • As many as 14 skaters and coaches, including two 16-year-olds and a married pair of world champions, were onboard the American Airlines plane. The Skating Club of Boston said Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, both aged 16, and the Russian-born ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were husband and wife, were on the flight.

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Video DC plane crash 'is truly devastating,' says Wichita mayor

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Video DC plane crash 'is truly devastating,' says Wichita mayor


DC plane crash ‘is truly devastating,’ says Wichita mayor

Wichita, Kansas mayor Lily Wu discusses the American Airlines jet that went down in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after departing from Wichita, Kansas.

January 30, 2025



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Multiple fatalities as aircraft collide over Washington DC and crash into river

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Multiple fatalities as aircraft collide over Washington DC and crash into river


Multiple people have been killed in a mid-air collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an army helicopter in Washington DC.

The aircraft crashed over the Potomac River and there is now a massive search and rescue effort involving multiple agencies at the scene.

Local media is reporting several bodies have been pulled from the freezing water.

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said on social media that “we know there are fatalities,” though he did not say how many.

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American Airlines said 60 passengers and four crew were on board at the time of the crash.

An official from the US Army has confirmed three soldiers were on board the helicopter.

Webcams captured the moment with the vision appearing to show two small aircraft nearing each other before erupting into a ball of flames.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the midair crash occurred about 9pm, local time, when Flight 5342, that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter while on approach to a runway at to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

It occurred in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, almost 5 kilometres south of the White House and the Capitol.

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Investigators will try to piece together the moments before the collision, including contact with air traffic controllers as well as a loss of altitude by the passenger jet.

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A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at the airport, and the pilots said they were able.

Controllers then cleared the plane to land. Flight tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.

Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asks the helicopter if it has the arriving plane in sight.

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The controller makes another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that the two aircraft collide.

Rescue boats have been searching the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. (AP: Julio Cortez)

Police said multiple agencies were involved in a search and rescue operation in the Potomac River, which borders the airport.

The temperature in Washington DC on Wednesday night, local time, is expected to drop to a low of 2 degrees Celsius.

The airport said that all take-offs and landings had been halted as emergency personnel responded to an aircraft incident.

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The National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering more information on the incident.

There has not been a fatal US passenger airplane accident since February 2009, but a series of near-miss incidents in recent years have raised serious safety concerns.

American Airlines said it would provide more information as it became available to the company.

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