A.G. Gancarski
The Donald Trump administration on Friday fired a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases and demanded the names of FBI agents involved in those same probes so they can possibly be ousted, moves that reflect a White House determination to exert control over federal law enforcement and purge agencies of career employees seen as insufficiently loyal.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the firings of the Jan. 6 prosecutors days after President Donald Trump’s sweeping clemency action benefiting the more than 1,500 people charged in the U.S. Capitol attack, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. About two dozen employees at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington were terminated, said a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel issues.
A separate memo by Bove identified more than a half-dozen FBI senior executives who were ordered to retire or be fired by Monday, and also asked for the names, titles and offices of all FBI employees who worked on investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot — a list the bureau’s acting director said could number in the thousands. Bove, who has defended Trump in his criminal cases before joining the administration, said Justice Department officials would then carry out a “review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”
The Justice Department also charged more than 1,500 Trump supporters in connection with the Capitol riot, though Trump on his first day in office granted clemency to all of them — including the ones convicted of violent crimes — through pardons, sentence commutations and dismissals of indictments.
This week, the Justice Department fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on Smith investigations, and a group of senior FBI executives — including several executive assistant directors and agents in charge of big-city field offices — have been told to either resign or retire or be fired Monday.
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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
2 comments
Ray Blacklidge
February 1, 2025 at 1:23 pm
Drain the Swamp!
Steve Kirn
February 1, 2025 at 1:23 pm
As Trump is fine if saying, “No one has ever seen…” such a brazen, shameless, political purge of our premier law enforcement agency. If they dump thousands of agents and virtually all key leaders, who will be there for the rest of us? Oh, I know! There are thousands of capable, white guys who are ready to step in! Right?