Donald Trump, the President of the United States, has ordered the dismissal of members of the Justice department who worked for former special counsel Jack Smith to investigate and prosecute him, CBS reports.
According to CBS,The federal prosecutors were informed of the decision to terminate their positions via a letter sent over email after Justice Department leadership determined they were unable to carry out Trump’s agenda.
James McHenry, the acting attorney general, who spoke with CBS said “the president made this decision because he did not believe these officials could be trusted to faithfully implement the presidency’s agenda because of their significant role in prosecuting the president”.
Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 and took over two ongoing investigations of the president, one related to his handling of classified records and the other tied to his conduct following the 2020 presidential election.
Read also: Trump’s critics from Bogota to the Arctic buckle under US power
Both cases were dismissed after Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Smith informed the judges overseeing the cases that Justice Department policy forbids the prosecution of a sitting president.
Throughout his probes, the former special counsel amassed a staff of prosecutors and agents to conduct grand jury investigations and try the cases in court. It is not immediately clear which members of Smith’s team were fired, but the move makes good on a Trump campaign promise to clean house in the Justice Department. Last week, the president signed an executive order to take on the “weaponization of the federal government,” a characterisation he applied to Smith’s prosecutions.
However, Smith had resigned from his position following the completion of his investigation. He wrote in his report on the probe that his team had collected evidence “sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” if the case involving Trump’s alleged conduct around the 2020 election had gone to trial.
Read also: How Trump’s immigration stance and ‘America First Agenda’ foster global development, security
Trump called Smith “desperate” and “deranged” and consistently denied wrongdoing throughout the investigations.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
