Bondi Fires 20 DOJ Employees Linked to Jan. 6 Probes
Attorney General clears out staff from Jan. 6 and classified documents cases to eliminate perceived bias.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has dismissed over 20 Justice Department employees linked to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigations and Donald Trump’s classified documents case, according to sources. This action forms part of a broader effort to remove personnel involved in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions against Trump for the riot and unlawful document possession.
These latest terminations push the total Smith-related dismissals to around 35, with possibly 15 more under review. Reuters initially reported nine firings, but sources confirm the figure at 20, potentially rising to 37 across offices in Washington, Virginia, Florida, and elsewhere. The group included attorneys, support staff, and U.S. Marshals, some of whom volunteered for the Trump probes. Before Bondi assumed office, 14 others had already been let go.
Bondi’s “Weaponization Working Group,” set up early in her tenure, identified these individuals through an internal probe aimed at ousting entrenched opponents of Trump. An administration official noted, “We’re reviewing and making sure. Some of these people were burrowed deep, and we’re finding them and making a determination.”
The firings, originally slated for earlier in the week, were postponed amid internal handling of the administration’s announcement that Jeffrey Epstein lacked a celebrity “client list” and died by suicide in 2019, not murder. This revelation frustrated some Trump supporters expecting disclosures from Epstein files, leading to a Wednesday confrontation between Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, a prior promoter of Epstein theories.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also advocated caution, ensuring only misaligned staff were removed. While controversial—critics labeled Bondi Trump’s enforcer—she maintains the moves excise overly political prosecutors who targeted Trump, Biden’s main rival.
This story originally appeared on Axios.