US Justice Department Official Orders Firing Some Prosecutors Who Worked on Jan 6 Cases- wna24

Washington: A top Justice Department official ordered the firing Friday of some prosecutors who were hired to work on cases against rioters charged in the US Capitol riot, according to memo obtained by The Associated Press.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed the interim US attorney in Washington, DC, to fire them days after Trump’s sweeping clemency order benefiting more than 1,500 people charged with federal crimes in the January 6, 2021, riot. It was not immediately clear how many prosecutors were affected. A spokesperson for the DC US attorney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

It comes as Trump administration officials are moving to fire at least some of the FBI agents who participated in investigations involving President Donald Trump in the coming days, two people familiar with the plans said Friday.

Trump administration officials are moving to fire at least some of the FBI agents who participated in investigations involving President Donald Trump in the coming days, two people familiar with the plans said Friday.

It was not clear how many agents might be affected, though scores of investigators were involved in various inquiries touching Trump. Officials acting at the direction of the administration have been working to identify individual employees who participated in politically sensitive investigations for possible termination, said the people who insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

A third person familiar with the situation said US attorneys were instructed on a call this week to provide the names of prosecutors and agents who had any involvement in the hundreds of cases against the rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. It was not made clear on the call why the names were needed, said the person, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

Any mass firings would be a major blow to the historic independence from the White House of the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency and would reflect Trump’s persistent resolve to bend the law enforcement and intelligence community to his will. It would be part of a startling pattern of retribution waged on federal government employees, following the forced ousters of a group of senior FBI executives earlier this week as well as a mass firing by the Justice Department of prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team who investigated Trump.

The FBI Agents Association called the planned firings “outrageous actions by acting officials are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump and his support for FBI Agents.” “Dismissing potentially hundreds of Agents would severely weaken the Bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the Bureau and its new leadership for failure,” the association said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear what recourse any fired agent might take, but the bureau has a well-defined process for terminations and any abrupt action that bypasses the protocol could presumably open the door to a legal challenge.

When pressed during his confirmation hearing Thursday, Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, said he was not aware of any plans to terminate or otherwise punish FBI employees who were involved in the Trump investigations. Patel said if he was confirmed he would follow the FBI’s internal review processes for taking action against employees.

Asked by Democratic Sen. Cory Booker whether he would reverse any decisions before his confirmation that don’t follow that standard process, Patel said, “I don’t know what’s going on right now over there, but I’m committed to you, senator, and your colleagues, that I will honor the due process of the FBI.”

(This story has not been edited by Republic and is published from a syndicated feed.)