By Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday fired several more Justice Department employees who worked for Special Counsel Jack Smith to investigate President Donald Trump’s retention of classified records and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to five people familiar with the matter.
About 20 lawyers, support staff and U.S. Marshals who worked on Smith’s probe were terminated, according to one of the sources.
At least two of the people fired were prosecutors who most recently worked in other U.S.
Attorneys’ offices in Florida and North Carolina, three of the sources told Reuters.
The Justice Department since January has been dismissing employees who worked on matters involving Trump or his supporters, citing Trump’s executive powers under the U.S.
Constitution.
A spokesperson for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fourteen attorneys who worked on Smith’s team were fired on January 27 because of work on cases against Trump, becoming some of the department’s earliest employees who were dismissed.
Department leadership told those attorneys in termination letters that they could not be trusted to carry out Trump’s agenda because of their work on Smith’s probe.
Including the people fired on Friday, at least 37 people who worked on Smith’s team have been terminated since Trump took office on January 20.
The Justice Department in recent months has also fired people who handled casework involving defendants who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
In late June, three prosecutors, one of whom had worked on cases involving the Proud Boys, were fired. Earlier this month, Bondi also fired a career veteran of the department who served as a spokesperson for the U.S.
Attorney’s Office in Washington.
In late January, the Justice Department also fired probationary prosecutors who had worked on January 6 cases.
Smith brought two criminal cases against Trump in 2023, accusing him of illegally retaining national security documents and plotting to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Both were dropped before Trump returned to office.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Tom Hogue and Diane Craft)
