Donald Trump’s Justice Department on Monday fired more than twelve career prosecutors who worked on former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations of the president, namely the federal election interference case and Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.
In termination letters sent to over a dozen Justice Department officials, acting U.S. attorney general James McHenry said they couldn’t be “trusted” to work in the new administration. The terminations were effective immediately.
“You played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump. The proper functioning of government critically depends on the trust superior officials place in their subordinates,” McHenry wrote, according to a letter first obtained by CNN. “Given your significant role in prosecuting the President, I do not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully.”
The action impacts any prosecutor who investigated Trump in his two criminal cases at the federal level.
The first case alleged Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election by inciting the January 6 Capitol riot in 2021, and the second case charged Trump with illegally retaining classified documents after leaving the White House and storing the materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Smith moved to dismiss those cases shortly after Trump’s reelection victory, citing Justice Department policy that forbids the prosecution of a sitting president. Appointed by former U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland in 2022, the Biden-era special counsel resigned ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
Before his expected departure, Smith completed his work in those investigations and submitted the final report to Garland. In the report, Smith maintained that he could have convicted Trump in the election interference case if it had gone to trial. The findings on the classified documents case won’t be publicly released yet, while charges against Trump’s alleged co-conspirators remain pending.
Monday’s firings are “consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government,” a Justice Department official told NBC News.
On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order to explicitly end the weaponization of the federal government against the Biden administration’s perceived political opponents.
In line with Trump’s order, acting U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, announced on Monday the launch of an investigation into prosecutors who brought obstruction charges against January 6 defendants. In a memo, the Trump-appointed attorney referred to the effort as a “special project.”
Martin ordered the attorneys to hand over “all information you have related to the use of 1512 [witness-tampering] charges, including all files, documents, notes, emails, and other information” before a report on the probe is submitted by Friday.
The move comes after the Supreme Court ruled last June that the Justice Department overstepped its authority by charging January 6 defendants with obstruction. Martin called the charges a “great failure” of the Justice Department.
Their charges were ultimately dropped last week after Trump pardoned more than 1,500 defendants who were charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot and commuted the sentences of 14 others, including Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes.
Martin praised Trump’s pardons for the vast majority of the January 6 protesters and advocated for a judge to drop an order that restricted Rhodes and other members of the Oath Keepers from entering the Capitol grounds or Washington, D.C. The judge dropped that initial order on Monday.