Why Trump’s Embattled US Attorney in DC Is Talking About Russia

Ed Martin, the acting US attorney in Washington, who has earned some notoriety through attempts to use his office to attack political opponents of the Trump administration, recently turned his sights on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian efforts to help President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

But Martin’s latest effort—a letter alleging misconduct by a former Mueller prosecutor—appears to lift language directly from an article that appeared five years ago in a conservative news outlet, and comes after Martin hired a press aide with a public vendetta against the Mueller team members who investigated him.

On Monday, Martin wrote to Aaron Zelinsky, a former federal prosecutor, who as part of Mueller’s team won convictions of political operative Roger Stone (for lying to Congress about his role in the leaking of Democratic emails stolen by Russian hackers) and offormer Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos (for lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts). Trump pardoned both men in late 2020.

In the April 14 letter, Martin asserts that Zelinsky, while prosecuting Papadopoulos, made “false statements” that helped send “an innocent man to jail in an attempt to advance the false narrative that the campaign of a serving President had colluded with Russia to win the presidency.”

As a prominent former member of the Mueller team, Zelinsky is a target for Trump allies still looking to discredit that probe and erase Mueller’s findings that Moscow, with the knowledge of Trump aides, interfered in the 2016 election to assist Trump. Zelinsky also testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 2020 that then-Attorney General William Barr had pressured prosecutors to lower their recommended sentence for Stone due to Stone’s ties to Trump.

Martin’s letter to Zelinsky was reported on Tuesday by the New York Sun, a conservative publication, and posted online by a pro-Trump writer. Its disclosure came shortly after Martin hired Michael Caputo, a veteran GOP operative and longtime colleague and friend of Stone, as a press adviser. Martin also recently hired Neil McCabe, a former reporter for far-right outlets Breitbart and One America News, as another media aide.

Caputo was investigated by Mueller’s team over his own Russian contacts in 2016, though he was not charged with any wrongdoing. He has since regularly expressed anger over the probe. As recently as December, Caputo called for the prosecution of what he calls the “perpetrators” of the Russia investigation.

Martin’s letter cites an August 2018 sentencing memo signed by Zelinsky, which notes that Papadopoulos’ lies to FBI agents “impeded the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election” and hindered their ability to question a suspected Russian agent. That man, Joseph Mifsud, had contacted Papadopolous in London in 2016, and informed him, before it was public knowledge, that Russian hackers had stolen emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and planned to anonymously release them.

Martin’s letter includes, without attribution, a paragraph that appears to be copied verbatim from a February 2020 article published by Just the News, a right-leaning outlet launched that year by John Solomon, who at the time was under fire for working closely with Trump allies who were pushing bogus claims about Joe Biden’s involvement in Ukraine.

“But FBI 302 reports detailing agents’ interviews with Papadopoulos show that he had in fact supplied information that would have enabled investigators to challenge or potentially detain or arrest Mifsud while he was in the United States,” that passage lifted from Just the News says.

Martin’s letter contends that Zelinsky should have noted in court filings that Papadopoulos offered information that might have helped agents track Mifsud. Martin does not dispute that Papadopoulos lied to FBI agents about his contacts with Mifsud by claiming the interaction came before he joined the Trump campaign—a crime that Papadopoulos admitted as part of a guilty plea and for which he served a 14-day sentence.

Martin’s spokespersons did not respond to questions about the letter, including why he chose this week to borrow wording from a five-year-old story to attack the Mueller investigation. Zelinsky did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Martin’s letter to Zelinsky came a day after Stone on Sunday morning tweeted out the Just the News story, along with a prediction that Zelinsky’s “indictment is imminent.” Caputo followed suit about 45 minutes later. Neither mentioned that the story was old news.

THIS IS FULL BLOWN CORRUPTION!

Declassified FBI memos undercut Mueller team claims that Papadopoulos hindered Russia probe | Just The News https://t.co/RFdjM3DUDT

— Michael R. Caputo (@MichaelRCaputo) April 13, 2025

Zelinsky was part of a team of Mueller investigators who investigated Caputo and Stone’s contacts with Russians in 2016, when both were aiding the Trump campaign. The investigation examined a May 2016 meeting between Caputo and Stone and a Russian expat living in Florida, who offered to sell damaging information about Hillary Clinton. No deal was reached, but as the Washington Post reported, the meeting caused legal worries for Stone and Caputo, each of whom told the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 that they had not had any contact with Russians during the 2016 campaign. Both later said they had forgotten about the meeting.

Caputo was not charged in the case. Stone was indicted in 2019 for lying extensively to the lawmakers about another matter—his efforts to influence WikiLeaks’ release of hacked Democratic emails—and for witness tampering.

Caputo, who has credited Stone with acting as a professional mentor, raised money for Stone’s legal defense, attended his trial, and was even ejected from the courtroom for turning his back on the jury after Stone’s conviction.

Both Stone and Caputo have since expressed animus toward people involved in the investigation. Last year, Mediate reported audio from 2020 in which Stone told an associate, a former New York City police officer, to “abduct” and “punish” Zelinsky. Stone later claimed the tape was “AI manipulation.”

Caputo was again involved in alleged Russian maneuvers after he hosted a January 2020 film aired by One America News titled “The Ukraine Hoax: Impeachment, Biden Cash, and Mass Murder.”

In 2021, a US intelligence report said alleged Russian agents—including Andriy Derkach, a former Ukrainian legislator whom the Treasury Department has called a Russian intelligence asset, and Konstantin Kilimnik, whom a 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee report identified as “a Russian intelligence officer”—had “met with and provided materials to Trump administration-linked US persons” in an effort to help Trump win the 2020 election. As part of that endeavor, the men and their associates “helped produce” a documentary. In 2021 Mother Jones reported this was a reference to the OAN program Caputo hosted. Caputo said at the time that he was not aware of Russian government involvement in the segment and had not spoken to Derkach or Kilimnik about the film.

Martin has also been involved with Russian propaganda. He appeared more than 150 times between 2016 and 2024 on RT and Sputnik, the Washington Post recently reported, and failed to mention those appearances in a Senate disclosure form. Those are Russian government-funded networks that various US government reports have said function as Kremlin propaganda arms. In some of those appearances, Martin repeated dubious Russian talking points. In early 2022, for instance, Martin criticized US government warnings that Russia was preparing to attack Ukraine. He claimed there was “no evidence” of a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s border. That statement came nine days before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Martin’s Russian TV appearances, and his flubbed attack on Zelinsky, are the latest in a long list of stumbles by the activist turned US attorney, who faces disbarment efforts, along with bi-partisan opposition to his Senate nomination, including a hold placed by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif). The embattled US Attorney is unlikely to win confirmation without help from Trump. Martin appears to be working hard to try to secure that.