Pam Bondi’s Justice Department has executed a rapid about-face after one of her most senior prosecutors sent a bizarre threatening letter to a hero of the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
Ed Martin, a fanatical MAGA appointee of Donald Trump, wrote to the first FBI agent on the scene of the slaughter to demand he answer questions about the lawsuit he and bereaved families brought against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Martin also demanded the letter to retired FBI Special Agent William Aldenberg’s attorneys be kept secret—only for it to be made public by Jones himself on Tuesday. He boasted that he was benefiting from Martin’s marching orders to end so-called “weaponization” of the justice system. “The Deep State is in DEEP S---!” the Infowars founder cackled to his followers, posting a picture with Martin.
Twenty-four hours after Jones’ gleeful revelation of the letter, Martin wrote a new letter to lawyers for Aldenberg, withdrawing his previous demands.
Martin—a Republican operative who has never prosecuted a criminal case—wrote in the letter, which was obtained by CNN, “At this time, I write to inform you that there is no investigation of you or your client. Because of this, I hereby withdraw my request for information from you or your former client.”
Aldenberg was one of the first law enforcement officers to arrive at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut where mass shooter Adam Lanza murdered 20 six- and seven-year-olds and six members of staff. At the time, it was the worst school mass shooting in American history.
After he retired, Aldenberg joined the families of eight victims in suing Jones for claiming on Infowars that the massacre was a hoax. A Connecticut jury ordered Jones in 2022 to pay the plaintiffs $1.3 billion, but he has so far failed to do so.
In his original secret letter sent on Sept. 15, Martin demanded information from Aldenberg’s attorney Christopher Mattei about “his role in certain litigation that may benefit him personally and that may impact our citizens and our legal system.”
“As you may know, there are criminal laws protecting the citizens from actions by government employees who may be acting for personal benefit,” he said. “I encourage you to review those.”
Martin asked whether Aldenberg received any financial benefit from the defamation suit, if he took actions “to protect the citizens” when he testified in the Jones case, and if he has any relationship with the public relations firm Berlin Rosen.
“At this time, I respectfully request that you and Berlin Rosen keep this correspondence confidential. I do not wish to litigate this in the media,” Martin wrote.
Jones seemed to have missed the memo. The Infowars host posted the letter in full on his X account, followed by 4.4 million people, writing: “Breaking! The DOJ’s Task Force On Government Weaponization Against The American People Has Launched An Investigation Into The Democrat Party / FBI Directing Illegal Law-fare Against Alex Jones And Infowars.”
Mattei, Aldenberg’s attorney, told ABC News that the letter was yet another harassment attempt from Jones.
“Thanks to the courage of the Sandy Hook families, Infowars will soon be finished,” Mattei said. “In his last gasps, Jones is once again harassing them, only now with the corrupt complicity of at least one DOJ official. It’s as disgusting as it is pathetic, and we will not stand for it.”
Martin was appointed by Trump as director of a Weaponization Working Group tasked with “identifying and investigating potential abuses of government authority” after his bid to become the top U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. was foiled by lawmakers who questioned his history of representing Capitol rioters.
Since then, he has posted enthusiastically on social media, posing with other MAGA figures as well as an odd picture outside the Brooklyn, New York home of Letitia James, the state’s attorney general, whom Trump is demanding be prosecuted. Martin wore a Columbo-style trench coat despite sweltering weather as he looked at a house, it is alleged, was part of a mortgage fraud. Martin has promoted his obscure family link to Columbo: His late great-uncle played the detective on stage before Peter Falk did on TV.
The retraction of the letter comes on the heels of Attorney General Pam Bondi walking back her own statements about going after anyone who spews “hate speech” in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
“Freedom of speech is sacred in our country, and we will never impede upon that right,” Bondi told Axios. “My intention was to speak about threats of violence that individuals incite against others.”
