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How Trump Deployed His Odd Squad in a Rampage of Retribution

In the president’s second term, resolute loyalists have replaced advisers who could have reined him in.

Opinion

The temperature was in the 80s, but Department of Justice (DOJ) special attorney Ed Martin was wearing a trench coat in a photo he tweeted of himself standing outside New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ home this month.

“Good morning, America. How are ya’?” the accompanying message read.

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Martin was there to gloat as director of the DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, which is tasked with investigating the Biden administration’s supposed use of the law to target political opponents.

Martin’s office had received a criminal referral charging James with petty mortgage fraud. This signaled that he would now be using the law as a weapon, to do to James exactly what she had supposedly done to President Donald Trump.

The first comment in response to Martin’s posting was from retired Gen. Mike Flynn, a right-wing zealot who briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser at the start of his first term.

“I’m loving the Colombo [sic] look. Always solved the problems. Go get’m!” Flynn wrote.

Flynn’s tenure lasted just 22 days before he was charged with lying to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat during the presidential transition period. He was replaced by retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, who was less extreme, as were many others in the White House who formed what were often referred to as “guardrails” for Trump.

But Kellogg is now serving in this second term as special envoy for Ukraine, so there are precious few people left to prevent the power-junkie-in-chief from going over the edge.

In their place is an odd squad of Trump loyalists.

The best known are those who occupy prominent positions way beyond what they would have likely achieved were it not for determinedly sucking up to Trump. Among these YES! Men is FBI Director Kash Patel, whose credentials for the job include co-producing “Justice for All,“ a recording of Trump and the J6 Prison Choir—a choir of insurrectionists—singing the national anthem.

There are also lesser-known apparatchiks who are using less powerful positions to make their mark. Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), is one to watch. He’s the son and namesake of a housing tycoon whose path to heirdom has been complicated by struggles both within his family and his father’s business. He managed to establish himself by frenetically posting messages online, accruing 3 million followers. He gained some attention by periodically giving away cash via what he called #TwitterPhilanthropy.

In July 2019, Pulte tweeted, “If @realDonaldTrump retweets this, I will give $30,000 to a Veteran on Twitter.”

Trump posted in response, “Thank you Bill.”

Pulte gave a homeless Tennessee veteran named Lena Ramon a $20,000 car and a check for $10,000.

The ultimate payoff for Pulte was an appointment to what had been a relatively obscure position. He changed that by issuing criminal referrals regarding misstatements on mortgage applications that dwarfed the fraud that had been Trump’s routine way of doing business.

One referral concerned Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, who was clearly targeted for refusing to bend to Trump’s will. She designated both a condominium in Atlanta and a home in Ann Arbor, Mich., as her primary residence when taking out loans. Pulte’s referral letter to the DOJ alleges that she claimed both as her primary residence in an apparent effort to secure better terms on loans. He went on CNBC to say Cook should step down.

“I think she will have to resign, or I think she will be fired,” he said.

Trump echoed him on Truth Social: “Cook must resign, now!!!:”

In reply, Cook said she had “no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet.”

Another referral issued by Pulte concerned James. Martin used it as a pretext to head for her brownstone and pose for a newspaper photographer. Martin had begun his ascent in Trump World after the 2020 election as an organizer for “Stop the Steal.” He tweeted from outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after the insurrectionists had stormed the building and Ashli Babbitt had been fatally shot.

“Like Mardi Gras in DC today: love, faith and joy,” Martin tweeted.

Martin continued to support convicted insurrectionists who wounded 140 cops, and his reward was to be nominated to become U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Trump withdrew the nomination when it became clear he would not be approved, even by a Republican-controlled Senate.

Jeanine Pirro got the spot, and Martin became a U.S. special attorney and director of the Weaponization Working Group. He is now investigating James and Cook, likely to be followed by others marked for Trump’s vengeance.

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On Martin’s staff at the Working Group is Jared Wase, an accused Jan. 6 insurrectionist whose criminal trial had commenced when he was pardoned. The evidence against him included a video of him calling cops “Gestapo” and “Nazis.” He can be heard shouting, ”Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!” as the officers were assaulted.

On Aug. 21, Martin posted a photo of himself and a man who appeared to be Wise sitting at a conference table. The post was quickly deleted, but not before Tom Dreisbach of NPR took a screenshot.

“Good morning America, how are ya?” Martin had written on the nixed post.

The same words are on Martin’s post of himself on Aug. 15, when he stood outside James’ brownstone as a member of the Odd Squad.

You might wonder if he wore the coat due to a tenuous connection with Columbo. But in posting on X about his great uncle, the actor Thomas Mitchell, Martin listed Mitchell’s greatest roles but made no mention of the fictional Lt. Columbo, whom the actor played on stage shortly before his death from cancer, in 1962.

“Uncle Thomas Mitchell was Uncle Billy in It’s A Wonderful Life and won an Oscar as Doc Boone in Stage Coach. He also played flak Diz Moore in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington!” he wrote.

Maybe Martin just thought that wearing a trench coat in the summer heat is normal in a time of Trump—when it seems nothing else is.

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Michael DalySpecial Correspondent

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