Donald Trump fires Justice Department lawyers who worked on criminal cases against him
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News
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Featured Image Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News
President Donald Trump has fired Justice Department lawyers who worked on bringing two criminal cases against him.
It's been a little more than a week since Trump took his oath of office as the 47th president of the United States on Monday (January 20) and he's been rather busy, with dozens of executive orders, presidential pardons and policy ideas flying out of the White House.
He sacked more than 1,000 government workers and presidential appointees within hours of his presidency and tore up diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programs with it, while staff in the Department of Labor responsible for the initiatives were placed on paid leave.
Announcing his plans to 'Make America Great Again' on his Truth Social platform, Trump named some of the employees he was letting go and even drew on his old The Apprentice catchphrase as he did so.
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The post read: "Let this serve as Official Notice of Dismissal for these 4 individuals, with many more, coming soon.
"Jose Andres from the President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars, and Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President's Export Council - YOU'RE FIRED!"
Now, Trump is turning his attention to the justice department team who'd worked on investigating his alleged mishandling of classified documents and of his alleged attempt to overturn his election defeat in 2020.
Jack Smith was appointed special counsel in 2022 to lead his team to investigate the cases which both resulted in criminal charges being brought - to which Trump plead not guilty.
However, the charges were later dropped in November after Trump's election win, as regulations prohibit the prosecution of a sitting president.
Mr Smith has maintained his professional integrity, writing in the final draft of his report (via the BBC): "The claim from [Trump] that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable."
The POTUS pledged to fire Mr Smith 'within two seconds' of taking his oath - but he beat him to it and quit before Trump's inauguration ceremony.
Yesterday (Monday, January 27), Trump fired more than a dozen of attorneys, which a justice department official told CBS News that Acting Attorney General James McHenry concluded they couldn't 'be trusted to faithfully implement the president's agenda because of their significant role in prosecuting the president'.
It remains unclear which members of Mr Smith's team have been sacked, but many worked in career corruption or as national security prosectors.
BBC News further reports that staff received their notice on Monday, which outlined how their involvement in investigating and prosecuting the president made them unfit to work in the government department.
Commenting on the matter, former US Attorney Joyce Vance said to NBC News: "Firing prosecutors because of cases they were assigned to work on is just unacceptable. It's anti-rule of law; it's anti-democracy."
But Trump and his supporters have long accused the justice department of pursuing a political agenda against him.
During his re-election campaign, he said the department has been 'weaponised' against him, with Pam Bondi, his nominee to lead the department, also agreeing that federal prosecutions mounted to political persecution.
The latest firings come as the justice department has already had a major overhaul and reassignments amongst its top officials, which saw the chief if public integrity section reportedly resign.
Meanwhile, CBS also reported Washington DC's top federal prosecutor has also revealed an internal review will be launched to assess the charges brought against 200 of the January 6 Capitol rioters, some of whom have received a presidential pardon from Trump.