Ed Martin revives federal charging strategy as violent crime falls, homicides tick up and Trump threatens to “take over” capital.
By Spencer Hsu, Keith L. Alexander, Peter Hermann, and Jenny Gathright, WAPO, March 3, 2025
Interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin on Monday directed his office to prosecute more firearms cases in federal court, launching a bid to crack down on gun violence in Washington, D.C., that revived a strategy from President Donald Trump’s first term.
The focus on charging gun cases in a court withharsher penalties targets felons in illegal possession ofa firearm and repeat violent offenders, according to an email Martin sent to staff. In announcing the push, Martin rolled out an initiative to “Make D.C. Safe Again.” The language echoes that of Trump, who has derided Washington as a “nightmare of murder and crime.”
“This is a whole of office initiative to dramatically change course to fight violent crime. … We will flood the federal district court with cases,” Martin wrote to staff in announcing the plan, which he said will be supported by about a dozen additional federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Martin in public statements has pledged a focus on gun violence in D.C. as he vowed to reshape the office, recasting the prosecutions of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot participants the office handled as a distraction from ensuring public safety. Monday’s move resumed an effort that was scaled back during the pandemic amid resource limitations and criticism of racial profiling in enforcement. It also marked a step toward delivering on this vision seven weeks into a tumultuous period overseeing the nation’s largest federal prosecutor’s office that saw him fire or demote many prosecutors who work on violent crime.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said he objected to the catchphrase “Make D.C. Safe Again,” given the downturn in violent crime the city was already seeing. Although homicides in D.C. have ticked up so far this year after a steep decline in 2024, police statistics show, violent crime overall remains down across-the-board in keeping with national trends.
“Violent crime is down again,” Mendelson said in an interview. “So if the theme was ‘Make D.C. Safer,’ or ‘Continuing to Make D.C. safer,’ I think those are preferable phrases.”
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) did not immediately return requests for comment about Martin’s plans. Neither did D.C. police.
Two D.C. police officials and two prosecutors from Martin’s office who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations said that Martin’s recent personnel changes would hurt authorities’ ability to deliver on his plans. He has fired prosecutors who investigated Trump and the Capitol riot, prompted the resignation of the head of the office’s criminal division and dropped several hundred pardoned Capitol riot police assault cases.
Last week, hedemoted seven top prosecutors — including two who oversaw federal gun prosecutions, Melissa Jackson and Meredith Mayer-Dempsey.
“They were people we could call in the middle of the night and they would answer the phone,” said one D.C. police official. “We’ll have to reestablish these relationships. It’s probably going to send us back months, or years.”
In a memo attached to Monday’s email, Martin thanked his staff for their work but said violence in D.C. was still “unacceptably common.” D.C. has seen 30 homicides so far in 2025 — an 11 percent increase year-over-year. Most violent crime dropped below pre-pandemic levels last year, with the exception of homicide and carjackings, police statistics show. Recorded killings in the District fell to 187 in 2024, from 274 the year prior.
Martin pledged a “multi-step effort to fight all crime in D.C.,” beginning this month by charging felons caught illegally possessing firearms under federal statutes in U.S. District Court rather than with local offenses in D.C. Superior Court and ordered his office to review pending cases for potential federal gun violations.
Tougher mandatory minimum sentences and pretrial detention are far more common in federal cases and are more consistently applied than in local cases. Felons found in possession of a firearm or those convicted of furnishing a gun to such “prohibited persons” face up to 10 years in prison under federal law. That increases to a mandatory minimum of five years for certain combined drug-distribution and gun cases and 15 years for people convicted of three prior violent felony or serious gun crimes under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act.
In D.C. Superior Court, the comparable local offense carries a 10-year maximum sentence and increases to 15 years for violent criminals. But many defendants receive punishments closer to mandatory minimum sentences, which vary from one year for those previously convicted of nonviolent offenses to three years for past violent offenders. In 2017, however, the D.C. Council passed legislation so that judges do not have to impose mandatory minimum sentences for offenders younger than 25, and in 2018 the D.C. Sentencing Commission downgraded the felon-in-possession statute to carry the same sentencing range as carrying a pistol without a license.
Martin’s announcement marks a return to past policies begun under President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s that peaked under George W. Bush. Contributions of “zero-tolerance” programs — which shifted gun offenders to federal courts in targeted cities — have drawn mixed reviews, overlapping with drops in violent crimes that already were occurring nationwide.
When last tried in Washington, prosecutors in Trump’s first term announced plans to charge all such cases in federal court. In practice, their efforts were limited by a shortage of prosecutors and other resources. Ultimately, the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office brought more than 200 cases in 2019 and 2020, but were forced to scale back plans by prioritizing offenders based on suspects’ criminal history, whether they had previous gun charges, and other factors including their age at the time and commission of any violent offenses.
Federal gun prosecutions in D.C. remain higher than in 2018, when a similar measure was last introduced, but the impact of those prosecutions on crime has been hard to discern amid wider trends.
Martin’s memo did not specify any future steps. Buttwo prosecutors inside the office who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly say that they expect a growing number of other crimes to soon be prosecuted in federal court under his push for tougher penalties, including federal death penalty-eligible cases. Since Congress reinstated the federal death penalty in 1988, only a handful of eligible cases have gone to federal trial in the District, where the death penalty is unpopular. None resulted in a death sentence.
Martin has promoted his plan in talks with D.C. officials, police and internal meetings. In a post on X on Saturday, Martin posted photos from a ride-along with D.C. police, and wrote, “I listened to the people who want safe streets and love each other. We will together MAKE DC SAFE AGAIN. Thugs With Guns: we comin.’ ”
Patrice Sulton, a criminal justice reform advocate and executive director of the DC Justice Lab, said she was concerned police may end up targeting people they assume may have felony records and be distracted from other criminal behavior. Sulton said this ultimately could have a disproportionate impact on Black residents of the city.
“This is about optics. The idea is to look like the city is tougher on crime. But possessing a firearm is not a violent crime. And there is no guarantee that federal judges are going to sentence at high end of the guidelines just because a person was found to possess a firearm.”
Trump has made public safety in the District a personal focus, saying in an interview with reporters last month that the federal government should “take over” management of the city to, among other things, ensure it is “run with law and order.” In his last term, Trump threatened to take control of the D.C. police department, but did not follow through. His newly appointed attorney general, Pam Bondi, has invoked crime in the District for another reason, announcing a Justice Department investigation into whether resources spent on Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot investigations came at the expense of the safety of D.C. residents.
Similar gun initiatives have met with mixed results.
In 2019 during Trump’s first administration, then-U.S. attorney Jessie K. Liu rolled out a very similar gun crime initiative after D.C. experienced a 40 percent spike in homicides, with a goal of charging all such offenses in federal court after a ramp-up period.
Bowser and local D.C. leaders initially supported Liu’s gun crimes crackdown. That changed in 2020 after prosecutors acknowledged that because of limited court and prosecutorial resources, the effort targeted three predominantly Black wards and was not enforced citywide as announced.
Trump appointees scaled back the plan that year, although a focuson gun prosecutions was continued under the Biden administration.
Mendelson, who met with Martin on Monday afternoon, said he ultimately would judge his success on whether the city sees swifter prosecutions and a lower declination rate.
“What is important — and time will tell — is whether we see effective prosecutions,” Mendelson said.
Kate Rabinowitz and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
