Special Counsel Jack Smith resigned before President Donald Trump took office last Monday, Jan. 20. However, under the Trump administration, the Justice Department has fired more than a dozen career officials who worked to prosecute the former president.
Smith’s team brought charges against the president for allegedly mishandling classified documents and for his role leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Courts later dismissed both cases.
Many fired employees were career officials following orders or assigned to the investigations.
However, in his letter to them, acting Attorney General James McHenry told the outgoing employees that he believed their prior work compromised his trust in them.
“Given your significant role in prosecuting the president,” McHenry wrote, “I do not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the president’s agenda faithfully.”
McHenry’s mention of the “president’s agenda” has become a source of political discourse. The Justice Department’s mission statement includes “independence and impartiality” as part of its historic values.
But both Democrats and Republicans have accused each other of politicizing or weaponizing the department in recent years.
After taking office last week, President Trump signed an executive order ending what he described as the “weaponizing of the federal government.”
It’s part of a broader effort by Trump to investigate prosecutors involved in bringing charges against him and his allies. It’s also a key promise he made on the campaign trail.
The investigation extends to charges against participants in the Jan. 6 attack, with interim U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C. Ed Martin looking into the origins of obstruction charges against some rioters. The Supreme Court threw out those charges in a ruling last summer.
The employees set to lose their jobs do have a mechanism to appeal the decision. The letter noted they can appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which reviews cases where government employees allege illegal workplace practices or partisan political interference with nonpartisan jobs.
