The acting attorney general on Monday fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on the two criminal investigations into Donald J. Trump for the special counsel Jack Smith, saying they could not be trusted to “faithfully implement” the president’s agenda, a Justice Department spokesman said.
Justice Department veterans called the firings an egregious violation of well-established laws meant to preserve the integrity and professionalism of government agencies.
What made it all the more jarring, current and former officials said, was that such a momentous and aggressive step had been initiated by an obscure acting attorney general, James McHenry, operating on behalf of a president with a stated desire for vengeance, and few advisers with the stature or inclination to restrain him.
The department did not name the fired prosecutors. But a person who worked with some members of Mr. Smith’s team said that many of the dismissals appeared to target career lawyers and most likely violated civil service protections for nonpolitical employees.
The move was abrupt, but not unexpected: Mr. Trump had vowed to fire Mr. Smith as soon as he took office, but the special counsel and some of his top prosecutors quit before Inauguration Day. Others, however, including some assigned to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, returned to their old posts.
The announcement kicked off a second week of convulsive change at a department Mr. Trump has vowed to dismantle and reconstruct, ushering in a new era of more direct White House control of federal law enforcement agencies.