Ed Martin? The same Ed Martin I’d seen stir chaos through Missouri politics for years was suddenly holding one of the most powerful prosecutorial posts in the country?
I’d seen Martin up close when I was a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I covered a bruising legal fight in Southern Illinois over control of the Eagle Forum, the conservative organization founded by anti-feminist icon Phyllis Schlafly, and Martin was a key player. I wrote a story in 2016 after Judge John Barberis issued an order removing Martin as the group’s president.
Nearly a decade later, I checked in on the lawsuit. It was still pending, and led to surprising revelations about Martin, including that he had ghostwritten attacks on Barberis. I couldn’t believe no one had reported these details. So I teamed up with my colleague in D.C., Andy Kroll, to tell the story. |
