(Headline USA) The Justice Department said Monday that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of President Donald Trump, moving rapidly to right the scales of justice against partisan operatives who abused their authority by waging lawfare on a top political enemy.
The DC prosecutors who pursued criminal charges against Trump have been fired.
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) January 27, 2025
The firings are effective immediately. However, the abrupt terminations targeting career prosecutors who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s team should come as no surprise to those affected, fulfulling one of Trump’s top campaign mandates and promises.
Underscoring the Biden adminstration’s norm-shattering attempt to jail the Republican presidential rival, the Trump house-cleaning was seen by some as equally drastic, albeit necessary in light of Trump’s past experience with disloyal “resistance” operatives during his first presidential term.
It follows the reassignment of multiple senior career officials across divisions, even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain with the department across presidential administrations, notwithstanding their involvement in sensitive investigations.
“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,” the statement continued. “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 the politically motivated lawfare investigations that for years shadowed Trump’s candidacy.
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 uprising at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump has long repudiated the corrupt actions of the Justice Department, which regularly undermined him during his first term, as well as waging legal attacks on him and his supporters during the last four years under former Attorney General Merrick Garland.
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 antagonists like Smith for malicious prosecution and abuse of power.
Smith resigned from the department earlier this month after submitting a two-volume report on the twin investigations into Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida—an action that he maintains was done in accordance with the Presidential Records Act following the precedent set by all of his recent predecessors in the position.
Following a highly unusual complaint by the National Archives—which appeared to have been working in tandem with the Biden administration—the DOJ authorized a shocking raid on Trump’s estate just weeks before the 2022 midterm election, even authorizing the use of deadly force.
Meanwhile, it buried the bombshell revelations that it had opened a parallel investigation into Biden himself, waiting until January of the following year, and ultimately determining that Biden was unfit to stand trial due to his cognitive decline.
The judge overseeing Trump’s case ultimately dismissed it after determining that Smith was illegitimately appointed.
At least one other key member of Smith’s 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.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
