Washington, June 28, 2025 – In a drastic move that shakes confidence in the independence of the American justice system, the US Department of Justice on Friday dismissed at least three prosecutors who played a key role in the criminal prosecution of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The decision came abruptly and without specific explanation - signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi. According to two individuals familiar with the matter, the dismissals affect two senior attorneys who oversaw the cases in the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, as well as a line prosecutor who handled cases related to the Capitol riot. One of the termination letters cites only Article II of the US Constitution and “the laws of the United States.” A concrete explanation is not provided. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment Friday evening.
But the firings are part of a broader pattern - the creeping, systematic dismantling of the rule of law under the Trump administration in its second term. Previously, top officials at the Justice Department had already fired or demoted employees involved in cases against Donald Trump himself or those considered insufficiently loyal. Careers have been cut short, departments restructured, institutional safeguards dismantled. This latest wave of personnel decisions adds to a series of troubling developments. On his very first day back in the White House, Trump annulled all verdicts against the more than 1,500 participants in the Capitol attack - including convictions for seditious conspiracy and severe violence against law enforcement. The mass pardons were seen by many as a collapse of judicial integrity. Now the objective appears clear: those who enabled the legal reckoning for that attack are being removed as well.
Notably, it hits familiar names: during his time as acting US Attorney in Washington, Ed Martin had already demoted several lead prosecutors in February - including the former head of the “Capitol Siege Section” who coordinated the prosecutions of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. Two attorneys who helped secure the convictions of Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio for seditious conspiracy were also reassigned. Back in January, then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove had fired around two dozen prosecutors who had originally been hired on a temporary basis for the Capitol cases but were converted into permanent roles following Trump’s election victory. In an internal memo, Bove stated that he would not tolerate “subversive personnel decisions by the previous administration” - a phrase already seen as a warning signal of impending purges. The course of the Trump-led Justice Department is clear: loyalty over law, allegiance over expertise. Friday’s dismissals are more than just another round of staffing changes. They are an attack on the institutional memory of the American criminal justice system - and an unmistakable signal that in Trump’s second term, not only is history being rewritten, but the responsibility for it is being erased. Democratic senators have already pledged resistance. Some are calling for a blockade of Trump’s upcoming nominations for key positions in the justice sector. But the central question remains: who will protect those who once tried to defend the rule of law - when even the Justice Department becomes a stage for political purges? The cost of prosecuting 1,500 Capitol rioters now seems to be measured not in indictments, but in termination letters. And while loyal prosecutors are dismissed and convicted insurrectionists are pardoned, Donald Trump is transforming the United States more and more into a rogue state - a nation where loyalty to the person outweighs fidelity to the Constitution.
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