The Department of Justice (DOJ) has reportedly fired lawyers involved in the federal prosecutions against President Donald Trump.
This latest move coincides with investigations being launched into the prosecutors who convicted the J6ers for offenses related to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol building.
A DOJ official told Fox News Digital that Acting Attorney General James McHenry ”terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump.”
He explained that the move “is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government.”
McHenry fired the prosecutors because “he did not believe these officials could be trusted to faithfully implement the President’s agenda because of their significant role in prosecuting the President,” a DOJ official told The Wall Street Journal.
Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., is leading the review of Jan. 6 prosecutions, according to people familiar with the matter. In an email Monday, he asked prosecutors to turn over “all files, documents, notes, emails and other information” related to the obstruction cases, which included charges against some of the most violent rioters at Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The loosely defined inquiry jarred prosecutors in the office as well as others who recently left, including some who took steps to arrange legal counsel to prepare for what comes next, the people familiar with the matter said.
More than a dozen Justice Department lawyers who worked on special counsel Jack Smith's team were removed from their jobs yesterday. "It's clear there was an enemies list," @evanperez says on @InsidePolitics, pointing to a memo from the Acting AG that says the Department can't… pic.twitter.com/dQONOH7cjc
— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) January 28, 2025
The individuals who were terminated worked with special counsel Jack Smith’s team to prosecute Trump for his supposed role in the riot and his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office in 2021.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida dismissed the classified records case in July 2024, arguing that Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel.
Smith later dropped the cases when Trump won the 2024 election, referring to a DOJ policy that prohibits prosecuting a sitting president. He resigned just before Trump was inaugurated. Several other lawyers also stepped down during this time period.
The former special counsel has also retained legal representation, as have several others who worked with him. It appears they could be anticipating legal action from the Trump administration.
Their firings come after at least 20 other career officials have been reassigned to more marginal positions. On Monday, the top career official in the department, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer, was moved to a new working group dealing with immigration issues, people familiar with the matter said. Corey Amundson, the head of the Justice Department’s public-integrity section, resigned after 23 years, after being told he was reassigned to the same group. The public-integrity section prosecutes election-related offenses and handles some of the most politically sensitive investigations of public officials.
It is not clear how many officials were fired and their names have not yet been released to the public.
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