On Monday, the General Prosecutor burned more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on two criminal investigations by Donald J. Trump for special advisor Jack Smith, saying that they “faithfully implement” the president’s agenda, justice spokesman.
The veterans of the Ministry of Justice described fire as a serious violation of established laws aimed at maintaining the integrity and professionalism of government agencies.
What did it make the more appalling that both contemporary and former officials were that such an important and aggressive step was launched by the unclear reigning general prosecutor James Mchenry, who worked on behalf of the President with the desire for revenge and few advisors with the character or a tendency to limit it.
The ministry did not name the prosecutors. However, the person who worked with some members of the team of Mr. Smith said that it seemed that much of the release was focused on lawyers in the AS career and most likely violated the protection of the civil service for non -political employees.
This step was suddenly, but was not unexpected: Mr. Trump committed that Mr. Smith promised as soon as he took the office, but a special advice and some of his best prosecutors ended up before the day of inauguration. Others, however, including some assigned to the US law firm in Washington returned to their old posts.
This announcement started the second week of varicose changes to the department, which Mr. Trump committed and reconstructed, in the new era of more direct control of the federal coercive bodies in the White House.
In letters to prosecutors who were transmitted electronically on Monday afternoon, Mr. Mchenry claimed that Mr. Trump had constitutional powers over personnel matters pursuant to Article II of the Constitution rather than claiming that they were terminated because of the cause based on poor performance or incorrect behavior.
“Given your important role in the prosecution of the President, I do not believe that the Ministry’s management can believe that they will help you faithfully in performing the President’s agenda,” said the shooting memorandum.
Greg Brower, who was an American lawyer during George W. Bush administration, said this step was unheard of.
“This is unprecedented, given the career position of these people, which forces them to be released by the President and the obvious lack of any cause that the Ministry has been able to articulate,” Brower said. “So I suspect that we will see them exercising their rights to appeal” on the Council for Protection against Systems of Merit, an independent agency that reviews the claims of rejected employees in the Civil Service and can restore them.
The justification expressed in the shooting memorandum is contrary to the decades of the Civil Service Act, which says employees can be released only for misconduct or poor performance, not for performing their work, said Kristin Alden, a lawyer who specializes in federal employment issues .
“The whole reason we have a law on the civil service reform is to get away from the prey system,” she said.
The palls reported by Fox News came only a few hours after the report of the main staff moved the Trump team, which emphasized its intention to quickly remove officials who could resist its planning. The most important career official of the Ministry, a recognized employee of the department responsible for some of the most sensitive cases, was assigned to a much less strong post.
If the official, Bradley Weinsheimer was to remain as an associated representative of the prosecutor, he would raise critical questions about possible recipes – a thorny problem for the department, which will soon be run by a number of former lawyers Mr. Trump.
It follows this about changes in some of the most experienced and highly recognized supervisors of the department, including Best officials With expertise in the field of national security, international investigation, publication and corruption of the public. One of them, the head of the Public Integrity section, resigned on Monday.
It is not yet clear who will replace them.
Like many other officials who received the transmission, Mr. Weinsheimer was given the opportunity to move to the ministry’s sanctuary – an offer that some saw in the same situation as an effort to get them to end.
Mr. Weinsheimer, a respected veteran of the ministry for three decades, has played a decisive role under several administrations and often acted as a critical arbitrator of ethical questions or interactions that required a neutral referee.
In July 2018, during the first period Mr. Trump, who was permanently one of his successors, temporarily interim, named his current role William P. Barr.
Mr. Weinsheimer also served four years in the Office of the Department for Professional Responsibility, which investigates complaints about prosecutors. E -mail on his government account was not immediately returned.
In 2021, Mr. Weinsheimer cleared the way to former officials of Trump’s administration to testify to the President’s actions after the elections until 2020 – above the objection of lawyers Mr. Trump. But the transcripts showed that he tried strictly reduce the scope of interrogationto members of the Democratic Committee employees.
Mr. Weinsheimer was also carried out by the Department for Department in the Exchange Series with President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Biden’s highly harmful assessment Included in the Special Counsel report on its processing of classified information.
Also on Monday, the head of the Public Integrity section of the Ministry of Justice resigned rather than being forced to convert.
Corey chief Amundson has been informed in recent days that he will be assigned to work on immigration. Mr. Amundson was one of many higher career officials that he was sent to work on a working group focused on shrines – jurisdictions, which are expected to be reluctant to observe administration officials trying to increase deportations and immigration arrests.
In his resignation letter acquired by the New York Times, Mr. Amundson told many important cases of corruption, which he supervised in 26 years in the department.
“I spent my professional life apolitical recovery of federal criminal law and ensuring that people around me understand and accept this central principle of our work,” he wrote in his letter to Mr. Mchenry. “I am proud of my service and I wish you the best in search of justice on behalf of the American people.”
He added that he wanted the department well because he chased Mr. Trump’s agenda, “including the protection of all Americans before the disaster of violent crime and public corruption.”
