President Donald Trump has fired several DOJ prosecutors who were involved in his criminal cases, Officials said they no longer trusted these prosecutors to carry out their duties.
At least a dozen lawyers who worked on Trump’s cases, including the one related to election interference and the case over mishandling classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, were let go, CNN reported Monday.
James McHenry, the Acting Attorney General, announced the firings in a statement, explaining that these officials couldn’t be trusted to help carry out the President’s agenda. He said the decision was part of a larger goal to stop the government from being used for political purposes.
Special Counsel Jack Smith had dropped the charges against Trump after the 2020 election, following DOJ guidelines that prevent prosecuting a sitting president. However, the firing of these prosecutors seems to show how the Justice Department plans to handle the situation moving forward, especially with some of these lawyers having worked on Trump’s cases long before Smith came on board.
The termination letters make reference to Trump’s complaints about the cases against him. They include quotes from Trump’s first day in office, where he accused the Biden administration of running a “systemic campaign” against its political opponents.
“Nowhere was that more obvious than in the DOJ’s unprecedented prosecutions of President Trump,” McHenry wrote.
The firings took effect immediately on Monday.
Some of the fired prosecutors may have seen it coming. For example, Jay Bratt, who led the Mar-a-Lago investigation, retired earlier this month.
The move also comes as The Wall Street Journal reports that the DOJ is asking for files from prosecutors who worked on the January 6 cases, particularly those involving felony obstruction charges. This follows a Supreme Court decision last year that ruled the law had been too broadly applied in those cases.
On his first day in office, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of over 1,500 people involved in the January 6 Capitol riot.
