As controversies pile up around President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as US attorney for Washington, DC, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee met behind closed doors this week to discuss concerns about Ed Martin’s nomination and whether senators should take the extraordinary step of holding a hearing on it.

There were signs of trouble at a Judiciary meeting on Thursday as Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the panel, said it was his understanding that committee chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was going to announce “that we are not going to move forward on the Martin nomination.”