More than a dozen officials working on criminal investigations of Donald Trump have been fired, according to sources familiar with the matter.
A letter to officials by Acting Attorney General James McHenry said they could not be “trusted” to “faithfully” implement Trump’s agenda.
“You played a key role in prosecuting President Trump. The proper functioning of government depends on how much senior officials trust their subordinates,” McHenry wrote. “Given your key role in prosecuting the president, I do not believe the department’s leadership can rely on you to assist in faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.”
The Trump administration is taking concrete steps to investigate prosecutors overseeing criminal cases against January 6 defendants, according to multiple sources who have seen internal memos on the matter.
Washington, D.C. In Pennsylvania, interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin has launched an investigation into prosecutors who brought obstruction charges against some rioters under U.S. Code 1512(c) that were dismissed last summer because of a Supreme Court ruling.
Referring to the effort as a “special project,” Martin wrote in a memo released Monday that attorneys should turn over “all information related to the use of the 1512 charges, including all files, documents, notes, emails and other information” to two of the office’s longtime prosecutors, who must submit a report on the investigation by Friday.
“Clearly the use was a major failure of our office — the S.Ct. decision — and we need to get to the bottom of it,” the memo says, referencing a June Supreme Court ruling that limited the power of federal prosecutors to pursue obstruction charges against Jan. 6 rioters.
The demand for documents also extends to prosecutors who have since filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Attorney General. The move comes at a time when the Justice Department is already seeing dramatic changes, as officials associated with high-profile investigations have been reassigned, including a now-dismissed case against Trump himself for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Prosecutors who worked on the January 6 cases told CNN that the memo raises concerns that Trump’s DOJ is starting to “investigate the investigators,” as they have long threatened to do. One person who worked on the Capitol riot cases told CNN that prosecutors do not know whether the investigation is seeking criminal or civil charges, and some are starting to hire their own lawyers to defend themselves.
A senior administration official familiar with the Martin email described it as a “fact-finding” mission, noting a “huge waste of resources.” “Given the mess the previous office made by filing hundreds of cases that the Supreme Court dismissed, it’s appropriate to get to the bottom of the poor decision-making,” the person said.
CNN has contacted the Justice Department for comment. Martin, a radical, socially conservative activist and commentator who was an organizer of the “Stop the Steal” movement, was selected for the role last week. Since starting the job, he has praised Trump for issuing mass pardons for January 6 defendants.
He successfully lobbied a judge to lift travel restrictions imposed on members of the Oath Keepers after they were released from prison, saying: “If a judge decides that Jim Biden, Gen. Mark Milley, or anyone else is prohibited from visiting the U.S. Capitol — even after receiving a last-minute, retroactive pardon from the former president — I believe most Americans would oppose that. The sentences of the individuals referenced in our proposal have been commuted — period, end of sentence.”
