Ed Martin Says the Lawfare Against Conservatives Is Headed Toward Killing Us

Ed Martin, who served as director of the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group and is facing a bar investigation from the D.C. Bar, has penned one of the most prescient and frightening articles about lawfare. Based on a recent speech he gave at “Barfare: Stopping Bar Discipline as Political Warfare,” which I also spoke at, he said the left will not stop with the lawfare against conservatives until they kill us. 

He laid out how the lawfare is escalating. “First, people are investigated because of their politics,” Martin began. “Then they are prosecuted. Then their professional licenses are taken away. Then they are imprisoned. Then their reputations are destroyed. Then they are bankrupted. Then the public is conditioned to regard them as something less than fellow citizens.”

But now, the targeting of conservatives is headed for far worse retaliation. “At some point, if that process continues unchecked, destroying people legally, professionally and financially is no longer enough,” he said. “That is why I say the endpoint is killing people.” 

This should be obvious to everyone who understands history. As a society becomes more and more authoritarian, murdering people is the end result. Look at what happened under Nazi Germany and communist countries. Under Adolf Hitler, 11 to 17 million lost their lives. Estimates of deaths in the former USSR under Joseph Stalin range from several million to 10 to 20+ million.

Ironically, this is happening because the Left refers to those on the right as Nazis, pedophiles, and other scary-sounding words. Disturbed people on the Left believe it is acceptable to murder conservatives since they buy into the false comparisons. Many on the Left now routinely call for the assassination of conservatives, instigating disturbed people in their base to actually carry out the assignment. We reached a turning point when Tyler Robinson allegedly murdered Charlie Kirk. Many on the left celebrated his death and continue to do so. 

A Network Contagion Research Institute / Rutgers poll from April 2025 found that 56 percent of those left-of-center said murdering Trump was “at least somewhat justified,” with 48 percent agreeing for Elon Musk. There have been four well-known assassination attempts on Trump, and Musk said two people were apprehended before they could kill him. Since the Left has had no success stopping Trump or Musk with lawfare or other methods, it is no surprise to see the escalation.  

Martin said people pretend that our legal proceedings are being conducted by the rules, when they’re not. “People can dress all of this up in the language of institutions, norms and professional responsibility,” he said. “Spend enough time inside the system and you begin to see what is actually happening.”

He condemned the contempt judges have for conservatives, lecturing conservatives as if they were “scum,” particularly the J6 defendants. “If somebody talked to somebody else that way in a schoolyard, there would probably be a fistfight,” he said. “Except in the courtroom, if you react, they arrest you again.”

Martin highlighted the lawfare against Trump’s former attorney John Eastman, the top constitutional legal scholar on the right, and Jeffrey Clark, who served in the DOJ under both Trump administrations. Eastman was disbarred in California, and prosecuted in Georgia and Arizona. Clark is undergoing disbarment proceedings in D.C. and was also a defendant in the Georgia RICO prosecution. 

Protesters line up at the end of Eastman’s driveway, and he found spikes hidden in the dirt meant to puncture his tires. Bank of America and USAA canceled his bank accounts. 

David Brock, an advisor to The 65 Project, which targets conservative attorneys, boasted during an interview, “[Project 65 will] not only bring the grievances in the bar complaints, but shame them and make them toxic in their communities and in their firms." 

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) made the news last week for stating that she wanted to make conservatives fearful of working for Trump. “I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration?’” she said. “‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want. And so let me avoid participating in that.’ I want that deterrence message sent.” 

Martin said this stage of whether we stop the lawfare or not is “probably the greatest set of moments since the Revolutionary War.” He suggested one solution is to impeach the judges. 

I believe this is the most prescient speech since Michael Anton’s 2016 “The Flight 93 Election” article. Anton laid out the case that we were at a crossroads — either elect someone for president who will drastically swing the pendulum back from the destruction the Left has caused, or continue down the path of destroying the U.S. by electing Democrats and complacent Republicans. He compared it to the heroic passengers on Flight 93 who risked their lives storming the cockpit on 9/11 to try and save the plane from going down after radical Islamists hijacked it. Better to go with the risky option of Trump, who would stop the country’s downward trajectory, than certain destruction under a Hillary Clinton presidency.  

It was one thing when the Left started going after no-name conservatives who made mistakes. They did this to create bad legal precedents that they could later use to take down bigger fish. Taking down the most prominent, respected constitutional legal scholar on the Right who represented Trump and did nothing wrong shows how much ground they’ve made since they took out little-known people like myself with barfare about 15 years ago. And at least back then, they didn’t come after me with prosecution. 

The lawfare must be checked NOW. Trump has a little more than two years left in office, and Republicans may not win the next presidential election. It is imperative that his administration continues combating the lawfare — and ramps up those efforts even more. The lives of conservatives depend on it.

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