DOJ fires dozens of prosecutors who handled Jan. 6 cases

The Justice Department abruptly fired dozens of prosecutors who worked on criminal cases stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to correspondence reviewed by POLITICO and an interview with one of the people who was terminated.

Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin emailed the employees just before 5 p.m. Friday, appending a memo from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove revealing an effort to root out employees the Trump administration considers improperly hired by the outgoing Biden administration.

It’s the latest extraordinary purge of officials Donald Trump has deemed adversarial to his interests. In recent days, the administration initiated a major reshuffling at the FBI, and last week, Trump fired numerous inspectors general across the federal government.

One of the fired prosecutors who handled some of the 1,600 criminal cases stemming from the Jan. 6 riot said about 25 to 30 colleagues were fired. Some prosecutors were also moved to different offices, according to the fired individual, who is a former assistant U.S. attorney and spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity because he fears further reprisals.

During the massive four-year criminal investigation of the Jan. 6 attack, the Justice Department tapped hundreds of prosecutors from across the country to pursue cases. Trump shut down the probe on his first day in office when he granted mass pardons to Jan. 6 rioters and ordered the department to drop the charges in pending Jan. 6 cases.

“Today we received direction about some folks leaving our employment,” Martin wrote in a terse email to staff at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.