Reports: White House ordered firing of 2 DOJ prosecutors
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The U.S. flag flies above a sign marking the Justice Department headquarters building in Washington, D.C. Photo: J. David Ake/Getty Images
Two career Department of Justice officials were fired in one-line emails stating the dismissals were "on behalf of" President Trump, multiple outlets report.
Why it matters: Trump has long railed against what he's called the "weaponization" of the justice system. Now, the White House, "in coordination with the Department of Justice, has dismissed more than 50 U.S. Attorneys and Deputies in the past few weeks," per an emailed statement from press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
- The dismissals of Adam Schleifer in Los Angeles and Reagan Fondren in Memphis late last week underscore "aggressive" White House efforts targeting U.S. attorney offices across multiple states, per the New York Times' reporting on the firings that cited three anonymous sources that Axios could not independently confirm.
Catch up quick: The Daily Memphian first reported that Fondren had been fired on Thursday "in a one-line email" from her position as acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee and also as a DOJ employee.
- Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) announced in a statement Friday that Joe Murphy would serve as interim U.S. Attorney for the district, saying she had "worked with President Trump to ensure that Memphis' chief federal prosecutor is competent, tough-on-crime, and pro-law enforcement."
- Representatives for Blackburn's office did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening on Fondren's firing.
Schleifer, who criticized Trump when he ran as a Democrat for a congressional seat in New York in 2020, was fired in a similarly brief email on Friday, the Los Angeles Times first reported.
- The NYT reported Schleifer was fired as federal prosecutor as he worked on the prosecution of Andrew Wiederhorn, a Trump donor and former CEO of Fat Brands, which owns fast-food chains Fatburger and Johnny Rockets.
- Wiederhorn is facing federal charges that a DOJ statement alleges "relates to a scheme to conceal $47 million in distributions he received in the form of shareholder loans from the IRS, FAT's minority shareholders, and the broader investing public."
What they're saying: "The American people deserve a judicial branch full of honest arbiters of the law who want to protect democracy, not subvert it," Leavitt said in her statement that was first shared with the NYT, without elaborating further on the connection between the firings of the prosecutors, who are part of the executive branch of the government, and the judiciary.
- Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment in the evening on this and the firing of the two prosecutors. Representatives for the DOJ also did not immediately return Axios' request for comment in the evening.
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