Michael Martin

On May 11, 2026, President Trump nominated Michael Martin to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. 

Biography 

Martin attended Boston College Law School, graduating with a J.D.

Legal Experience

Michael Martin currently serves as the Criminal Chief for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. Prior to this role, he served as Chief of the office’s National Security Unit, responsible for prosecutions of national security and immigration cases. He also served as Deputy Criminal Chief and Executive Assistant United States Attorney. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Martin was a trial attorney in the Counterespionage Section within the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.

After graduating from law school, he clerked for the Honorable Hugh H. Bownes of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and the Honorable Edward F. Harrington of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Prior to law school, Martin worked as an analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Key Facts and Context

• As the Criminal Chief at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, Martin serves in a leadership role within that office.

• Under Martin’s leadership and likely with his approval, a number of politically motivated attacks have occurred in his office.

• Martin almost certainly would have had to sign off on the politically motivated firings of two seasoned prosecutors, seemingly for their successful prosecutions of several Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act violators. This 32-year-old law protects patients, providers, and their access to reproductive care facilities without threats of force or intimidation.

• President Trump pardoned nearly two dozen previously convicted FACE Act violators within weeks of taking office. These cases were later named in a Trump administration report titled “The Biden Administration’s Weaponization of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.”

• When more than a dozen Minnesota U.S. attorneys mass-resigned following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Martin seems to have volunteered to continue filing politically motivated cases. One of the cases filed by an AUSA who reports to Martin was even filed in the Eastern District of Michigan, extending prosecutorial reach from Minnesota, all the way to Eastern Michigan.