'Unchecked power': Trump himself ordered firings of prosecutors working criminal cases against him
President Donald Trump directly ordered the firings of more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on criminal cases against him. While the order originally seemed to come from acting Attorney General James McHenry, two anonymous sources told the Guardian on Tuesday that the directive came from Trump himself.
When they were fired, prosecutors were told that their role in the cases made them untrustworthy. Now, Trump’s role in the matter is a demonstration of his unchecked power through exerting influence on the Justice Department, the Guardian reports.
Some advisers saw the move as the beginning of efforts to have the attorney general enforce the president’s agenda. The Department of Justice has gone through significant changes since Trump took office.
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Hugo Lowell writes at the Guardian: “The genesis for the firings was Trump himself, according to two people directly familiar with the matter, and a demonstration of Trump’s unchecked power as he implements a new order where the Justice Department is answerable to the White House.”
He continues: “The end goal of Trump’s team is for the president to have at his disposal a Justice Department that plays a leading role in enforcing his wishes and doing his bidding, under their version of a unitary executive, where the president directs every agency.”
In the termination notices, McHenry wrote that because of their “significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” these prosecutors could not be trusted to “assist in faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.”
Those fired worked for former special counsel Jack Smith on two criminal cases: one involving mishandling classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, and one regarding Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. After Trump ordered the firings, Sergio Gor, head of the White House presidential personnel office, issued a memo to the Justice Department. The Guardian reports Gor's memo "gave the move a degree of legal cover."
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Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove last week also ordered the firing of prosecutors involved in cases about the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
