What could have been considered isolated when the White House fired a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles last week, the administration targeted a once-Democratic congressional candidate who lashed out at President Trump on the campaign trail.
But in the days that followed, it became clear that the firing was part of a wider campaign against Trump’s perceived enemy that angered the Justice Department and some of the largest law firms in the United States.
Last Friday, the White House ended Adam Schleifer,,,,, Assistant attorneys for U.S. corporate and securities fraud strike forces have been leading an investigation into pro-Trump business executives. After the Times report on the matter, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement saying the Justice Department has eliminated at least 50 U.S. lawyers and representatives nationwide in the past few weeks.
“The American people should have a judicial branch full of honest legal arbitrators who want to protect democracy rather than subvert it,” Levitt said.
Levitt did not explain how the fired person allegedly subverted democracy, and White House officials did not respond to requests for more information.
Trump has power over federal prosecutors because the U.S. attorney’s office is part of the Justice Department, which belongs to the executive branch, not the judiciary. While it is normal for a politically appointed U.S. attorneys who resign or are forced to resign when the new administration is in power, several attorneys say that line prosecutors like Schleifer are professional employees who can only be terminated for performance or misconduct.
According to several current and former prosecutors, the White House took a shocking step that could be illegal and, if repeated, could be weakened in the Department of Justice’s entire Department of Justice’s independence could be weakened. Sources familiar with Schleifer’s shooting, and several others who spoke with Times, demanded anonymity, cited concerns about the rebound.
The White House and the U.S. Department of Justice have not stated exactly why Sliver was fired. Schleifer and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles declined to comment.
Several federal law enforcement sources say they suspect Shriver’s firing is related to his comments about Trump during the congressional campaign and sued a fast-food restaurant CEO who has donated about $40,000 to Trump and the Republican cause in recent years.
Connie Woodhead, a 30-year-old Justice Department veteran and former first assistant attorney in the office where Schleifer works, said his departure was “unprecedented.”
“I think it’s very chilling…especially there is no further explanation as any assistant attorney accuses anyone who might be friends [Trump] Government or government donor. ” she said.
Trump’s team is unsecretly planning to get rid of the administration of employees who are on the president or his allies and their interests. An hour before Schlever was fired, Laura Loomer, who sometimes served as Trump’s adviser, began calling for his strike to be removed from social media. Wimble later celebrates shooting Saturday on XIt also pointed out that “Biden reservations that openly express bias against President Trump” should be fired.
The job of an American assistant attorney is often not charming, involving mundane but crucial legal grunts of prosecuting a variety of federal crimes, from white-collar scams to international narcotic conspiracies and public corruption. This has always been the starting point for many outstanding legal professionals, with major law firms often poaching top talent. Keeping the best prosecutors, whose cases are largely apolitical, is a long-term challenge for the government.
Several former federal prosecutors said firing U.S. assistant prosecutors is often a laborious process involving employees’ supervisors and senior work in their regional offices. For example, prosecutors may adopt a “performance improvement program” even before termination is considered.
“Professional prosecutors who exceed probation have public service protection. This usually means that there will be a long and well-documented process before one of them may be fired,” said Carley Palmer, a former director of the Los Angeles federal attorney’s office, who is now a partner at Halpern. “To fire someone who goes beyond their probationary period.”
Several sources told The Times over the weekend that Los Angeles attorney Joseph T. McNally was not involved in the decision to terminate Sliver. Sources without public authorization and fear of revenge, they suspect Schleifer’s sack was motivated in some form of a philosophical rank as he was assigned to involve the company’s former CEO Andrew Wiederhorn, which owns Fast Food Chains Fatburger and Johnny Rockets.
The grand jury sued Wiederhorn last May He accused him of hiding federal taxable income By paying for “shareholder loans” from the company and its family, then using them for personal gain. He pleaded not guilty.
Wiederhorn’s lawyers have actively prompted Justice Department officials to abandon the case, two sources said. The case against Wiederhorn has donated about $40,000 to Trump’s Political Action Committee and the Republican National Committee over the past two years, but is still being tried in federal court. After Schleifer was fired, the defense team did not respond to a request for comment.
In addition to the Wiederhorn case, there is also concern that Schleifer was targeted for political reasons. Schleifer gave Trump a few words when he ran on a public congressional seat in New York’s 17th District in 2020.
A former colleague of Schleifer said that despite his political ambitions outside the office, he was able to focus on the law at work.
“He’s smart. He’s hard. He’s fair. He judges cases based on evidence,” Woodhead said. “He’s apolitical in the office.”
Schleifer left his position during the 2020 political campaign but was hired by former Atty before Biden took office in 2021. Nicola Hanna, Trump appointed. Hanna is now part of the Wiederhorn defense team. None of Wiederhorn’s lawyers responded to the New York Times’ request for comment.
Schleifer’s dismissal appears to be just the latest case from the Justice Department.
Reagan Fondren, an American attorney in Western Tennessee, was recently fired in a line of emails at the White House. Memphis every day. Unable to comment with Fondren immediately.
Adam Cohen, Director of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, Written on LinkedIn last month Over the past 26 years, he was suddenly fired from the Justice Department of “old hooligans, street gang members, cartel bosses, terrorists” and others.
“It’s no politics to send bad guys to prison,” Cohen wrote. “I served with five presidents and 11 lawyers…my personal politics never had anything to do with.”
In January, more than a dozen prosecutors were fired after a criminal case was filed against Trump. These include Gregory Bernstein
Bernstein has previously assisted Jack Smith in the investigation of the allegations that Trump orchestrated confidential documents after leaving the office and promoted a rebellion about the outcome of the 2020 election. Bernstein refused the interview request.
The Special Attorneys each received letters from the Justice Department stating that given their “important role” in prosecuting Trump, “I don’t think the department’s leaders can trust that you can assist you in faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.”
The attorneys have since retained the attorneys and challenged the legitimacy of the shooting through a call to the Performance Systems Protection Committee, an independent, quasi-judicial agency charges. Palmer said if the board does not overturn Schleifer and Bernstein’s sacks, they may have to sue in federal court to get their jobs back.
Jack Smith is one of hundreds of former Justice Department lawyers who signed for February Open letter For professional federal prosecutors, an “alert” to department leadership’s recent actions. The letter follows a Justice Department order to dismiss allegations of corruption against New York Mayor Eric Adams, despite senior prosecutors from both ends of the political spectrum resigning in protest of the order.
“We are taught to seek justice without fear or grace, and know that our investigations and allegations should be based solely on facts and laws,” the letter said. “We know that these values are not merely demands in the manual, but are the basis of the system of fairness and legality. We maintain them no matter who is president.”
The current and former federal prosecutors’ ability to fire federal prosecutors to find jobs in the private sector has attracted attention after Trump released a targeting firm that has links to some of his political enemies, including former professional lawyers Robert S. Mueller III and Hillary Clinton, whose opposition in the 2016 election.
Although district court judges ruled that some Trump orders against law firms might be unconstitutional, some companies tried to appease him.
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, a partner who once tried to establish a criminal case against Trump while working in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Agree to donate $40 million in legal services to lead to Trump’s supportincluding “the President’s Task Force on Fighting Anti-Semitism and other mutually agreeable projects.”
Company, which one It is reported that about 2,000 employees arealso agrees to review its recruitment practices and promises to “not adopt, use or comply with any DEI policies.”
