Ed Martin, the acting U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, took the action against federal prosecutors who had been involved in Jan. 6 cases.
Several top prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., were demoted on Friday to low-level positions handling minor crimes, another step in a campaign of retribution against Justice Department officials perceived as enemies by the Trump administration.
Those demoted include one prosecutor who had overseen all cases arising from the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and at least two who had worked on the trials of members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia, according to people with knowledge of the moves, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The abrupt personnel changes, announced in a series of emails sent by Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, were the latest upheavals in one of the country’s most important federal prosecutors’ offices.
Mr. Martin’s internal onslaught has been seen by prosecutors in the office as a brazen effort to punish, humble and harness its employees at the behest of the White House. Demeaning demotions have been a favored tactic employed by President Trump’s political appointees to force career prosecutors to quit.
Among those being reassigned was John Crabb Jr., a supervisor whose experience in the office had earned him some of the toughest assignments in recent years, the people familiar with the moves said. Those included the criminal trial of Roger J. Stone Jr., one of Mr. Trump’s advisers; the prosecution of Michael T. Flynn, a former national security adviser; and all conspiracy cases arising from the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, including those that involved the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
Another prosecutor who was reassigned, the people said, was Greg Rosen, who had overseen all Jan. 6-related cases as the chief of what was known as the Capitol Siege section.