US Department of Justice sacks officials who worked on criminal investigations into Donald Trump

28 January 2025, 06:05 | Updated: 28 January 2025, 07:08

The US Department of Justice said on Monday that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on the criminal investigations into President Donald Trump, moving rapidly to pursue retribution against lawyers involved in the investigations.

The abrupt action targeting career prosecutors who worked on special counsel Jack Smith's team is the latest sign of upheaval inside the Department of Justice (DoJ) and reflects the administration's determination to purge the government of workers it perceives as disloyal to the president.

The move, which follows the reassignment of multiple senior career officials across divisions, was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain in their positions across presidential administrations and are not punished because of their involvement in sensitive investigations.

The firings were effective immediately.

A statement from a Justice Department official said: "Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DoJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump.

"In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President's agenda. This action is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponisation of government."

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It was not immediately clear which prosecutors were affected by the order, or how many who worked on the investigations into Mr Trump remained with the department.

It was also not immediately known how many of the fired prosecutors intended to challenge the terminations by arguing that the department had ignored civil service protections afforded to federal employees.

Mr Smith himself resigned from the department earlier this month after submitting a two-volume report on the twin investigations into Mr Trump's efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

At least one other key member of the team, Jay Bratt, also retired from the department this month after serving as a lead prosecutor in the classified documents case.