Trump Justice Department says it has fired employees involved in prosecutions of the president

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Monday that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of 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 Justice Department and reflects the administration’s determination to purge the government of workers it perceives as disloyal to the president.

The norm-shattering move, which follows the reassignment of multiple senior career officials across divisions, was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain with the department across presidential administrations and are not punished by virtue of their involvement in sensitive investigations. The firings are effective immediately.

“Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” said a statement from a Justice Department official. “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 weaponization of government.”

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

Smith himself resigned from the department earlier this month after submitting a two-volume report on the twin investigations into 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.

The firings were first reported by Fox News.

U.S. aid agencies see dozens placed on leave

At least 56 senior officials in the top U.S. aid and development agency were placed on leave Monday amid an investigation into an alleged effort to thwart Trump’s orders.

A current official and a former official at the U.S. Agency for International Development confirmed the reason given for the move Monday. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Several hundred contractors based in Washington and elsewhere also were laid off, the officials said.

It follows Trump’s executive order last week that directed a sweeping 90-day pause on most U.S. foreign assistance disbursed through the State Department.

As a result of the freeze, thousands of U.S.-funded humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide had stopped work or were preparing to do so. Without funds to pay staff, aid organizations were laying off hundreds of employees.

An internal USAID notice sent late Monday and obtained by The Associated Press said new acting administrator Jason Gray had identified “several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the President’s Executive Orders and the mandate from the American people.”

“As a result, we have placed a number of USAID employees on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until further notice while we complete our analysis of these actions,” Gray wrote.

Trump has signed many executive orders since taking office a week ago, but the notice did not say which orders the employees were suspected of violating.

Moves to ban transgenders in military

Trump has signed an executive order directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to revise the Pentagon’s policy on transgender troops, likely setting in motion a future ban on their military service.

Trump had tried to impose a ban on transgender troops during his first term, but it was tangled up in the courts for years before being overturned by then-President Joe Biden shortly after he took office.

Trump in his order Monday claimed that troops who identify as a gender other than their biological one “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.” He said that was harmful to military readiness and, due to that, required a revised policy to address the matter.

Lawyers for transgender troops who challenged the ban in the courts during Trump’s first term have already pledged to fight the new ban.