WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of President Donald Trump, moving rapidly to pursue retribution against lawyers involved in the investigations and signaling an early willingness to take action favorable to the president's personal interests.
The abrupt termination targeting career prosecutors who worked on special counsel Jack Smith's team is the latest sign of upheaval inside the Justice Department and is consistent with the administration's determination to purge the government of workers it perceives as disloyal to the president.
Monday's norm-shattering move, which follows the reassignment of multiple senior career officials across divisions, was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain with the department across presidential administrations and are not punished by virtue of their involvement in sensitive investigations. The firings are effective immediately.
“Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” said a statement from a Justice Department official. "In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda. This action is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government.”
It was not immediately clear which prosecutors were affected by the order, or how many who worked on the investigations into Trump remained with the department as Trump took office last week. It was also not immediately known how many of the fired prosecutors intended to challenge the terminations by arguing that the department had cast aside civil service protections afforded to federal employees.
The action was the latest effort to turn the table on criminal investigations that for years shadowed Trump, resulting in separate indictments that never went to trial and were ultimately abandoned.
On his first day in office, he issued sweeping pardons and sentence commutations to the more than 1,500 supporters charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, a massive clemency grant that benefited even those found guilty of violent attacks on police, as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of failed plots to keep the Republican in power.
Trump has long sought to exert control over a Justice Department that investigated him both during his first term as well as during the last four years under former Attorney General Merrick Garland. He has repeatedly said he expects loyalty from a law enforcement community trained to put facts, evidence and the law ahead of politics. He's moved to put close allies in high-level positions, including replacing his first FBI director, Christopher Wray, with loyalist Kash Patel.
Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, said at her confirmation hearing this month that she would not play politics but did not rule out the potential for investigations into Trump adversaries like Smith.
Smith resigned from the department earlier this month after submitting a two-volume report on the twin investigations into Trump's efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. At least one other key member of the team, Jay Bratt, also retired from the department this month after serving as a lead prosecutor in the classified documents case.
Both the election interference case and the classified documents prosecution were withdrawn by Smith's team following Trump's presidential win in November, in keeping with longstanding Justice Department policy.
The firings were first reported by Fox News.
Eric Tucker And Alanna Durkin Richer, The Associated Press
