It looks like Acting Attorney General James McHenry isn't going to waste a second of his time at the helm of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and he apparently has former Special Counsel Jack Smith on his mind.
On Monday, McHenry issued memos to at least a dozen Smith staffers informing them that their services were no longer needed at the DOJ. The subject line of the memo read "Notice of Removal from Federal Service," and in it, the acting AG took the staffers to task for their blatant partisanship against Trump, which, he said, now rendered them useless to the federal government.
“You played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump. The proper functioning of government critically depends on the trust superior officials place in their subordinates,” McHenry wrote. “Given your significant role in prosecuting the President, I do not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully.”
McHenry referred to Article II of the U.S. Constitution and the "laws of the United States" when informing the staffers that their jobs had been eliminated and they were hereby "removed from federal service effective immediately." A Justice Department official told Fox News Digital that the action "is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government."
Corporate media, naturally, went into fret mode at the news of their ideological brethren being unceremoniously shown the door.
About a dozen Justice Department employees who worked for former special counsel Jack Smith on the investigation and prosecution of President Trump are being fired, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News. https://t.co/4z5pDLSBFi
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 27, 2025
The fired staffers presumably played key roles in Jack Smith's investigation into President Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House in 2021, which prompted the infamous raid on Mar-a-Lago. In a blatant weaponization of the DOJ, Smith was also tasked by former Attorney General Merrick Garland to look into whether or not Trump attempted to obstruct the investigation.
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The investigation was ultimately a very expensive nothing burger that succeeded only in laying bare the partisanship that infested the Biden DOJ.
Acting AG McHenry had a busy Monday. In addition to the firings, he launched an investigation into federal prosecutors who used US Code 1512(c) to bring charges against some J6 defendants, charges that were later dismissed by the United States Supreme Court.
Referring to the effort as a “special project,” Martin wrote in the memo issued Monday that the attorneys should hand over “all information you have related to the use of 1512 charges, including all files, documents, notes, emails, and other information” to two of the office’s long-term prosecutors who must submit a report on the probe by Friday.
“Obviously the use was a great failure of our office – s. ct. decision – and we need to get to the bottom of it,” the memo reads, referencing the June Supreme Court ruling that limited the power of federal prosecutors to pursue obstruction charges against the January 6 rioters.
Many of the prosecutors who served at Biden's DOJ abandoned ship before Trump was sworn into office last Monday, possibly thinking they'd stay ahead of any investigations the Trump DOJ might launch, but McHenry has put them on notice that they, too, must cough up all relevant documents.
It's anyone's guess what the acting AG will do next, but he's definitely making the most of the time he has.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Wednesday on Pam Bondi’s nomination to be the next Attorney General.
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