House Democrats are demanding answers regarding the Justice Department’s move this week to fire more than a dozen officials involved in former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, arguing the action was in ‘complete contradiction’ of President Trump’s effort to keep a ‘merit-based system’ for government employees.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Gerald Connolly, D-Ma., penned a letter to acting Attorney General James McHenry Tuesday, obtained by Fox News.
‘We write to you with alarm and profound concern about reports of the administration engaging in the widespread summary firing and involuntary reassignment of excellent career prosecutors and federal agents throughout the Department of Justice (DOJ),’ they wrote. ‘This onslaught against effective DOJ civil servants began within hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, in complete contradiction of the president’s repeated pledges to maintain a merit-based system for government employment.’
Raskin and Connolly added that the officials worked ‘strenuously to defend the rule of law have been removed from their positions without any evaluation—much less any negative evaluation—of their work.’
McHenry, on Monday, fired more than a dozen key officials on Smith’s team who worked to prosecute the president, saying that they could not be trusted in ‘faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.’
Fox News Digital first reported the news exclusively on Monday.
Raskin and Connolly argued that the officials terminated on Monday were ‘part of an expert, non-political workforce tasked with protecting our national security and public safety.’
‘They have been hired and promoted based on their professional merit and excellence,’ they wrote, adding that ‘many of them have decades of experience under their belt and have served under, been promoted by, and received awards from presidential administrations of both major political parties, including President Trump’s first administration.’
The Democrats argued that McHenry removed them from their posts ‘without regard to their demonstrated competencies, their recognized achievements, or their devoted service to the Department, in some cases reassigning them to areas that are outside of their legal expertise.’
‘By removing them from their positions in this hasty and unprincipled way, you have very likely violated longstanding federal laws,’ they wrote, also accusing McHenry of having ‘taken aim at law students who applied to, interviewed for, and received offers from the Department based on their demonstrated academic achievements and their commitment to public service.’
The Democrats claimed that the DOJ ‘rescinded job offers to summer interns and entry-level attorneys hired through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, a highly competitive 72-year-old recruitment program that receives applications from students at hundreds of law schools across the country.’
‘We have also received disturbing reports surfacing that White House staff are playing a substantial role in these employment decisions and examining career civil servants’ LinkedIn and other social media profiles to ascertain their personal political leanings,’ Raskin and Connolly wrote. ‘Taken together, your actions raise significant concern that you are determined to fill the ranks of the DOJ and FBI with career employees selected for the personal loyalty or political services they have rendered to President Trump.’
Raskin and Connolly are demanding the DOJ provide them with a list of names of officials who have been reassigned or terminated; and provide any communications between the DOJ and the White House since Inauguration Day regarding the content of personal social media accounts of career DOJ employees or applicants.
Raskin and Connolly demanded the information by Feb. 11 at 5:00 p.m.
Their letter comes after McHenry, on Monday, transmitted a letter to each official notifying them of their termination, a Justice Department official exclusively told Fox News Digital. It is unclear how many officials received that letter. The names of the individuals were not immediately released.
‘Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,’ a DOJ official told Fox News Digital. ‘In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda.’
This action ‘is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government,’ the official told Fox News Digital.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.