Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly fired several Department of Justice (DOJ) employees this week with ties to former special counsel Jack Smith, who probed President Trump’s handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to reports by several outlets, including the Associated Press.
At least nine DOJ workers were terminated by Bondi on Friday, The New York Times reported, while other outlets including Axios and The Washington Post reported that 20 employees were cut, including U.S. marshals, support staff and lawyers.
As part of the purge, two prosecutors who worked under Smith were let go, multiple news outlets reported on Saturday, citing multiple anonymous sources. Reuters first reported on the firings late Friday.
The Hill has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The firings are part of a push to scrub the department of those who were involved with Smith’s investigations into Trump improperly retaining records at Mar-a-Lago and the election interference case.
Smith dismissed both the classified documents and the election interference case late last year, pointing to the DOJ’s policy of not prosecuting a sitting president of the U.S. Smith resigned from his role at the end of former President Biden’s term.
In late January, shortly into Trump’s second term, the DOJ fired at least a dozen prosecutors who worked on Trump’s criminal cases, saying they could not be trusted.
The now-terminated employees were identified as part of the DOJ’s so-called “Weaponization Working Group,” which was formed to review the department’s work over the past four years and the work of Smith, multiple outlets reported on Saturday.
Patty Hartman, a top public affairs specialist, was fired on Monday. Hartman was part of the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office media team.
“The rules don’t exist anymore. There used to be a line, used to be a very distinct separation between the White House and the Department of Justice, because one should not interfere with the work of the other. That line is very definitely gone,” Hartman told CBS News.
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