The Department of Justice said Monday that it had fired several career lawyers involved in prosecuting Donald Trump.
The DOJ employees worked on special counsel Jack Smith's investigation that led to now-dismissed indictments against Trump over his handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump," a Justice Department official told NBC News. "In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda. This action is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government."
Among those let go, an official familiar with the matter told NBC News, were career prosecutors Molly Gaston, J.P. Cooney, Anne McNamara and Mary Dohrmann.
Career civil servants can’t just be summarily fired — a legal process will unfold.
“Firing prosecutors because of cases they were assigned to work on is just unacceptable,” said former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, an NBC News legal contributor. “It’s anti-rule of law, it’s anti-democracy.”
Former DOJ lawyer Julie Zebrak, an expert in federal employment law, said career civil servants cannot be summarily fired.
Politics
“They have civil service rights. They have due process rights,” she said.
If the Justice Department is arguing that these lawyers are not performing properly, they must be subject to what’s known as progressive discipline, she said, including warnings and notice. They must be allowed to hire lawyers before they lose their jobs.
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“There is a reason people say it’s so hard to fire federal employees,” she said.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News: