Donald Trump's government fired a group of prosecutors involved in criminal cases of January 6, 2021.
The government of US President Donald Trump dismissed a group of prosecutors involved in the criminal cases of January 6, 2021 on Friday, and demanded the names of the FBI agents involved in those same investigations to possibly dismiss them.
The Interim Deputy Secretary of Justice, Emil Bove, ordered the layoffs of prosecutors who worked in the cases of January 6, days after Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people accused in the attack of that day to the Federal Capitol, according to a Memorandum obtained by The Associated Press.
Approximately two dozen employees of the federal prosecutor in Washington were fired, according to a person aware of the matter who spoke on condition of storing anonymity because he is not authorized to declare about personnel issues.
A separate Bove memorandum identified more than half a dozen senior executives of the FBI who were ordered to resign or be fired for Monday, and also requested the names and records related to all the agents who worked on the investigations on the riots In the Capitol, a list that the agency's interim director said it could rise to thousands.
Bove, who defended Trump in his criminal cases before joining the Government, indicated that officials of the Department of Justice would carry out a “revision process to determine if additional actions are required about the staff.”
“As we have said from the moment we accept to assume these papers, we are going to adhere to the law, to the FBI's policy and to do anything in the best interest of the American workforce and the US people, always,” wrote the Interim director of the FBI, Brian Driscoll, in a letter to the staff.
Prosecutors who were fired from the Federal Prosecutor's Office in the Columbia district had been hired for temporary work to support the cases of January 6, but were transferred to permanent positions after Trump's presidential victory in November, according to the memorandum obtained For the AP.
Bove warned that “subversive actions of personnel by the previous government would tolerate.”
The FBI agents association declared that any mass dismissal would be an “outrageous action by interim officials who are fundamentally in contrast to the police objectives delineated by President Trump and his support for FBI agents”.
“Potentially dismissing hundreds of agents severely weakened the capacity of the office to protect the country from national and criminal security threats and, ultimately, would risk preparing the bureauc and its new leadership for failure,” said the association in a release.
Trump has expressed his fury towards the FBI and the Department of Justice for investigations that overshadowed his presidency, including one about the links between Russia and his 2016 campaign.
He fired an FBI director, James Comey, in the midst of Russia's investigation, and then replaced his lieutenant, Christopher Wray, just weeks after winning the elections last November.
When he was asked at the White House on Friday, he had had something to do with the scrutiny of the agents, Trump replied: “No, but we have some very bad people there. It was used as a weapon at a level that no one has ever seen before. They chased many people – as I – but chased many people. ”
“If they fired some people there, that's something good, because they were very bad,” he added.