The Justice Department has fired more than a dozen officials who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s team to investigate and prosecute President Trump, The Washington Times confirmed Monday.
Acting Attorney General James McHenry made the decision to terminate the officials because “he did not believe these officials could be trusted to faithfully implement the president’s agenda and because of their significant role in prosecuting the president,” a Justice Department official said.
The names of the officials fired were not immediately available, but Mr. McHenry reportedly fired staffers via a letter sent over the Justice Department’s email system. Mr. Smith resigned at the end of the Biden administration.
The firings fulfill a campaign promise by Mr. Trump, who repeatedly railed against what he saw as the weaponization of the Justice Department and vowed to clean house.
On Mr. Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order pledging to end the “weaponization of the federal government.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he supported the move.
“There has to be accountability for those who engage in the political weaponization of the law. Firing them is a good place to start,” he wrote on X.
The terminations are the latest in a series of actions by the Trump administration to reshape the Justice Department. Last week, numerous career Justice Department officials who held high-level positions were reassigned, including leaders of the department’s senior criminal and national security units. Those that had been transferred had worked across administrations of both parties.
Also on Monday, the head of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, Corey Amundson resigned. Although Mr. Amundson was appointed by Mr. Trump, his public corruption unit advised Mr. Smith’s team on various aspects of the case, according to court documents.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Mr. Smith in 2022 and he oversaw the department’s investigations into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified records and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Both cases were dismissed after Mr. Trump won the 2024 election and Mr. Smith told the judges in those cases that Justice Department policy forbids the prosecution of a sitting president.
Mr. Smith wrote in his report on the probe into Mr. Trump’s conduct around the 2020 election that his team had collected enough evidence “sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction” if the case had gone to trial.
Only the first volume of Mr. Smith’s report has been released to the public. The second volume, which details Mr. Trump’s actions in handling classified documents, is being shielded from public view while an appeal in the case is ongoing.
In his report, Mr. Smith insisted politics did not influence his findings. He wrote in a letter accompanying the report that any notion that his decisions were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors “is, in a word, laughable.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has blasted Mr. Smith as both “desperate” and “deranged.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.