By Steve Neavling
President-elect Donald Trump intends to dismiss the entire team that assisted special counsel Jack Smith in pursuing federal prosecutions against him, including career attorneys who typically have protections against political retaliation, according to two individuals familiar with his transition plans, The Washington Post reports.
Trump is also preparing to form investigative teams within the Justice Department to search for evidence of fraud in battleground states during the 2020 election, one of the sources said.
These proposals signal Trump’s plans to overhaul the Justice Department, the nation’s top law enforcement agency, and highlight how some of his agenda is driven by personal grievances rather than ideological or policy goals.
When asked about Trump’s intentions to fire Smith’s team and investigate the 2020 election, Trump’s spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, reiterated his frequent claim that the Justice Department cases against him were politically motivated.
“President Trump campaigned on firing rogue bureaucrats who have engaged in the illegal weaponization of our American justice system, and the American people can expect he will deliver on that promise,” Leavitt said in a statement. “One of the many reasons that President Trump won the election in a landslide is Americans are sick and tired of seeing their tax dollars spent on targeting the Biden-Harris Administration’s political enemies rather than going after real violent criminals in our streets.”
Trump continues to frequently discuss the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, but insists was stolen in key battleground states. He has maintained that Smith’s investigations into his efforts to overturn the results, as well as his alleged mishandling of classified documents, exemplify government weaponization against him that must be addressed.
As he prepares to reenter the presidency, Trump “wants to clean out ‘the bad guys, the people who went after me,’” one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal transition plans. The source added that while forming investigative teams to review the 2020 election is less developed, Trump’s priority remains a sweeping shakeup of the Justice Department.
Trump underscored this goal Thursday after his initial choice for attorney general, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration.
Announcing his new pick, longtime ally Pam Bondi, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans. Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”
It remains uncertain how swiftly or effectively Trump could fire career prosecutors, including those involved in Smith’s classified-documents and election-obstruction cases. These cases have been delayed by appeals, and Justice Department policy prohibits prosecuting sitting presidents. Smith is expected to file updates on Dec. 2 about his plans to conclude the cases.
Trump’s ambitions to overhaul the Justice Department may also face legal hurdles. Before leaving office in 2021, Trump signed an executive order known as the “Schedule F” rule, which would have reclassified large segments of career government employees to make them easier to dismiss. Biden reversed that order and implemented rules through the Office of Personnel Management to strengthen career protections.
Trump has vowed to reinstate the Schedule F rule, but legal experts say implementing it could take years as courts review the legality of firing large numbers of federal employees.
“The protections that Biden put in will help, but it will be a fight,” said Rushab Sanghvi, acting general counsel of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents some Justice Department employees — though not prosecutors.
