Failing to win Senate approval as US Attorney for Washington, DC, has made Ed Martin a more formidable force inside the Trump Justice Department.

After three chaotic months as interim US attorney earlier this year, Justice Department officials placed Martin in the department’s headquarters in a traditionally more supervised position. Unconfirmable and intent on rewriting the consequences of the January 6 prosecutions, Martin was, as one Trump ally said, being put under more “adult supervision.”

That move, though, didn’t appear to hold him back. Martin now wields a surprising amount of political power and four titles: Associate Deputy Attorney General, Pardon Attorney, director of the Weaponization Working Group and Special Attorney for Mortgage Fraud. He’s also become the chief enforcer of using the Justice Department to exact President Donald Trump’s personal agenda — including by playing a role behind the scenes in the recent indictments of Trump foes James Comey and Letitia James, delving into so-called “weaponization” within the federal government and Biden-era pardons, and continuing to bear down on others Trump wants to see investigated.

On Monday, Martin told the Republican-led House Oversight Committee that he was working on an “ongoing investigation” of pardons and commutations during Joe Biden’s presidency.

The effort, which adds fuel to Trump’s attacks of presidential clemency given to members of the House Select Committee that investigated January 6 and others before they faced charges, recasts the traditional role of a pardon attorney in the extreme. Previously the job focused on reviewing and making recommendations to the president after prisoners petitioned for clemency. Under Martin, it’s become a much more active, politicized approach, where he is now critiquing past presidents’ clemency, a Constitutio