Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin has accused Wikipedia of violating U.S. law and threatened to review its nonprofit status. The scandal has centered on allegations of historical distortion and interference by foreign agents.
Image source: The Wikimedia Foundation
Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin has sent a formal letter to the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia. The letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Free Press, questions the Foundation’s compliance with the criteria for maintaining its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. Martin claims that Wikipedia allows foreign agents to deliberately edit pages to distort historical facts and spread propaganda, which he believes poses a threat to U.S. national security.
American law requires tax-exempt organizations to operate solely for religious, charitable, scientific, educational, or public safety purposes. In the letter, Martin points out that Wikipedia’s activities involving the manipulation of historical facts and the spread of misinformation may violate these obligations, calling into question its right to tax exemptions.
In recent weeks, Ed Martin has sent letters of complaint to several prominent scientific journals: the New England Journal of Medicine, CHEST Journal, and Obstetrics and Gynecology. In the letters, he alleges that the journals’ editors are displaying political bias in scientific debates. Martin has a long-standing history of filing ill-founded legal claims against the media, often accompanied by dubious and difficult-to-prove allegations.
In his letter to the Wikimedia Foundation, Martin is seeking clarification on several points: what measures the organization takes to protect the public from propaganda, what steps it takes to prevent targeted editing by foreign agents, and how it prevents the distortion or rewriting of historical facts. A response to this formal request must be received by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia no later than May 15.
In response to the allegations, Jacob Rogers, deputy general counsel of the Wikimedia Foundation, said that Wikipedia content is governed by three core principles: neutrality of presentation, mandatory fact-checking, and a strict ban on original research. Rogers emphasized that the process of creating and editing materials is carried out by almost 260,000 volunteers around the world. He also emphasized that the Foundation welcomes the opportunity to explain to the public how Wikipedia works and is ready to do so in an appropriate legal format.
Right-wing pressure on Wikipedia is increasing. In 2024, Elon Musk publicly called on his supporters to stop donating to “Wokepedia,” a sarcastic name for Wikipedia that alludes to its supposed political bias. He later described the site as “an extension of traditional media propaganda.” In January 2025, Forward.com reported that the Heritage Foundation had prepared a presentation aimed at specifically targeting Wikipedia editors and undermining their editorial independence.
«The Wikimedia Foundation has since developed tools to protect the anonymity of its editors. The foundation’s CEO, Maryana Iskander, said in March this year that the organization has seen an increase in threats from governments and private entities around the world. She said this in an interview with 404 Media, highlighting the increase in attempts to regulate the platform’s activities, as well as threats of lawsuits against Wikipedia editors and administrators.