Justice Dept. fires more prosecutors, support staff involved in Trump prosecutions, AP sources say

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has fired additional lawyers and support staff who worked on special counsel Jack Smith's prosecutions of President Donald Trump, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The overall number of terminations was not immediately clear but they cut across both the classified documents and election interference prosecutions brought by Smith, and included a handful of prosecutors who were detailed to the probes as well as Justice Department support staff and other non-lawyer personnel who aided them, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel moves that have not been publicly announced.

The firings are part of a broader wave of terminations that have roiled the department for months and that have targeted staff who worked on cases involving Donald Trump and his supporters. In January, the Justice Department said that it had fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on prosecutions of Trump, and last month fired at least three prosecutors involved in U.S. Capitol riot criminal cases.

Days ago, Patty Hartman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington, whose prosecutors handled the cases against the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol, said in a social media post that she had been handed a letter signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi informing her that she had been fired.

Smith's team in 2023 brought separate indictments accusing Trump of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida as well as conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Neither case reached trial. The Supreme Court significantly narrowed the election interference case in a ruling that said former presidents enjoyed broad immunity from prosecution for their official acts, and a Trump-appointed judge dismissed the classified documents case by holding that Smith's appointment as special counsel was illegal.

Smith ultimately withdrew both cases in November 2024 after Trump's victory, citing a Justice Department legal opinion that protects sitting presidents from federal prosecution.