Washington— The Justice Department fired seven career lawyers prosecuting Donald Trump on Monday, increasing the president’s revenge against his perceived enemies.
The employees worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s probe that resulted to now-dismissed indictments against Trump for his handling of secret data and his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat before the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry fired several DOJ personnel who helped prosecute President Trump, a Justice Department official told NBC News. The Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to faithfully follow the President’s agenda based on their behavior. This supports the goal of ending government weaponization.”
A source told NBC News that career prosecutors Molly Gaston, J.P. Cooney, Anne McNamara, and Mary Dohrmann were fired.
Smith resigned this month before Trump’s inauguration. Trump’s re-election terminated federal criminal cases against him due to the Justice Department’s longstanding ban on prosecuting sitting presidents.
Trump has only been convicted in Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg’s hush money case. This month, Trump was sentenced to a penalty-free unconditional discharge, becoming the first convicted felon president.
In December, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was removed from the Georgia election interference case due to conflict-of-interest charges, halting the trial indefinitely.
Trump claimed throughout the 2024 campaign that all probes were politically driven “witch hunts.” He said Democrats “weaponized” the Justice Department to hurt his re-election bid.
Smith and former Attorney General Merrick Garland rejected political motives in the investigations. They alleged Trump’s actions led to criminal probes into the Jan. 6 incident and his failure to surrender secret records to the National Archives.
Old Justice Department officials and legal experts have argued that Trump shouldn’t retaliate against career civil servants who were performing their jobs and were often assigned to probes. They warned retaliating against Trump case career prosecutors would chill the Justice Department workforce and hinder future investigations of public leaders’ wrongdoing.
“Firing prosecutors because of cases they were assigned is just unacceptable,” said former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, an NBC News legal commentator. “It’s anti-law; anti-democracy.”
A Justice Department official told NBC News: “He’s playing with casino and house money. If rights are violated, the government’s payout will pale in comparison. He’ll let the government pay.”
In the firing letter, the employees were cited for probing Trump. NBC News reported that the letter claimed, “You played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump.” The trust top officials have in their subordinates is crucial to government functioning. Your big role in prosecuting the president makes me doubt the department’s leadership can trust you to implement the president’s objectives.
The letter states that federal employees can appeal discipline decisions to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
Julie Zebrak, a federal employment law specialist and former Justice Department lawyer, said career government workers cannot be fired.
“They have civil service rights. People have due process rights, she noted.
If the Justice Department claims the lawyers are underperforming, they must face progressive discipline, including warnings and notice, she said. Let them hire lawyers before losing their employment.
“There is a reason people say it’s so hard to fire federal employees,” she remarked.
