Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are launching an investigation Friday into the firings of Justice Department attorneys and employees who investigated President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified records.
In a letter obtained by CBS News, the panel’s Democrats are asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to hand over records about at least 20 Justice Department staff fired last month.
The senators said they’re seeking information regarding the justification “for any of these draconian personnel actions,” in reference to the terminations. They said of Justice Department leaders, “Firing career administrative staff who lack decision-making authority because they were doing their jobs is a petty but pernicious abuse of power.”
In their letter to Bondi, they said that those who lost their jobs were not just prosecutors, but included “paralegals, finance staff, administrative support staff, and United States Marshals.”
The fired Justice Department staffers were identified by the agency’s so-called “weaponization working group” which Bondi established as one of her first priorities after she was confirmed earlier this year, a source told CBS News.
In their probe of the Justice Department, the Senate Democrats are asking the agency to hand over lists of employees who have been fired since Jan. 21, and for details on the “criteria” for the firings.
The letter demands answers from the department by Friday Sept. 12.
The panel’s Democrats also allege the fired employees were not given time to respond to accusations or to their terminations.
“Those dismissed since January are patriots and public servants,” the letter reads. “Your dismissal of their service without prior notice and without cause is a grave injustice that mocks the American ideal of nonpartisan government. Firing these public servants without cause is antidemocratic at best and likely unlawful.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CBS News about the allegations from the Senate Democrats or the firings.
The purge of Justice Department employees, which also includes those who worked on investigations and prosecutions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, began shortly after Mr. Trump’s second inauguration, when he installed a former Jan. 6 defense attorney, Ed Martin, as the acting top prosecutor in Washington, D.C. It has continued under Jeanine Pirro, the new D.C. U.S. attorney.
Mr. Trump and his supporters have downplayed the damage, injuries and trauma of the assault on the Capitol and have sought to recast convicted rioters as “political prisoners.” People convicted in connection with the events on Jan. 6 received pardons from Mr. Trump when he took office for his second term.
“Congressional oversight of the Justice Department’s unprecedented purge of career employees is desperately needed,” said Stacey Young, the executive director of Justice Connection, an organization that helps support fired and former Justice Department employees.
Young said the Justice Department employees terminated since the beginning of the Trump administration were fired “without notice and without following the other legal requirements under the Civil Service Reform Act.” She noted that those who worked for Smith were among the first to be fired.
“Employees at the Justice Department should never be fired simply because they were assigned by their leadership to work on a case disfavored by the President,” Young told CBS News.
Scott MacFarlane is CBS News’ Justice correspondent. He has covered Washington for two decades, earning 20 Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards. His reporting has resulted directly in the passage of five new laws.
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