US President Donald Trump.
Credit: Reuters Photo
The Trump administration fired another batch of nearly 10 Justice Department employees who once worked for the special counsel's office that twice indicted President Donald Trump, some in relatively minor roles, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The dismissals Friday were the latest sign that the administration was reaching deep into the inner workings of the Justice Department to find and expel not just people who had a direct part in investigating and prosecuting Trump during his four years out of office but also those who had played secondary roles in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith.
The latest firings, which include at least two federal prosecutors, appeared to once again ignore traditional civil service protections and were said to be based on a broad assertion of presidential authority, according to two people who spoke about the moves on condition of anonymity to avoid discussing a politically sensitive subject.
At least seven others who were fired had served as support staff to Smith's office, the two people said. They helped manage the office, handling tasks like overseeing financial records, performing paralegal services or conducting information security.
Since the early days of Trump's second term, the president's aides have repeatedly sought to fire, punish or demote the people who worked on the cases against him as well on cases stemming from the attack on the Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.
The purging from government ranks of anyone associated with these cases has been sporadic, with fresh batches of firings coming at different intervals and often without much explanation, other than the citing of Article II of the Constitution, which defines the powers of a president.
More dismissals were expected, according to the people familiar with the matter, but Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, has been pushing to stop additional firings, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.
Earlier this month, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent letters of dismissal to three prosecutors in the US attorney's office in Washington who had helped to supervise the investigation into Jan. 6, which was the largest criminal inquiry in the Justice Department's history.
A longtime spokesperson for the US attorney's office, Patricia Hartman, also was recently fired.
Those moves came nearly five months after several prosecutors who had worked on prominent Jan. 6-related cases against the far-right extremist groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were demoted to handling low-level criminal cases.
In January, more than a dozen junior prosecutors who had worked on Jan. 6 cases were fired.
Even as much of this was happening, the Justice Department under Trump has hired people who have served as vocal advocates for the rioters charged in connection with the Capitol attack.
Ed Martin, a prominent supporter of Jan. 6 defendants, was Trump's initial pick to run the US attorney's office in Washington. When it appeared that he would not survive Senate confirmation, largely because of his close connections to the rioters, Martin was named to be the Justice Department's pardon attorney and tapped to lead the so-called Weaponization Working Group, a task force established to seek retribution against Trump's political enemies.
Recently, Martin hired as one of his advisers on the weaponization task force a former FBI agent who had been charged with encouraging the mob at the Capitol to kill police officers on Jan. 6. Trump granted clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the events that day.