On Monday, the Justice Department dismissed many officials who worked on Trump's prosecutions. According to a Justice Department official, the acting attorney general disapproved of the posts and claimed they "could be trusted to faithfully implement the president's agenda."

NBC News reported that over 20 FBI field office heads, including those in Miami and Washington, were among those being fired. CNN reports that the FBI has ordered at least six senior leaders to "retire, resign, or be fired by Monday." The Post reported that Brian Driscoll, the FBI's acting director and a seasoned agent appointed by Trump to lead the bureau until a new director is confirmed by the Senate, refused to approve the mass firings. 

Senate Judiciary Committee top Democrat Senator Dick Durbin strongly condemned the FBI and Justice Department firings. "The Trump Administration's purge of dozens of DOJ and FBI officials involved in investigating Donald Trump and the January 6 rioters is a major blow to the FBI and Justice Department's integrity and effectiveness," Durbin said. "This is a brazen assault on the rule of law that also severely undermines our national security and public safety," he said.

"Unelected Trump lackeys are carrying out widespread political retribution against our nation's career law enforcement officials." If the claims of mass terminations are accurate, the measures are "fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump and his support for FBI Agents," according to the FBI Agents Association, a non-profit organisation that advocates for FBI workers. 

"Dismissing potentially hundreds of Agents would severely weaken the Bureau's ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the Bureau and its new leadership for failure," the FBIAA said in a statement. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal cases against Trump, resigned earlier this month.

Smith had charged Trump with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and mishandling classified documents after leaving office. However, neither case went to trial, and following a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president, Smith dropped both cases after Trump won the November election. On his first day back in the White House last week, Trump pardoned over 1,500 of his supporters who had stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of Joe Biden's victory.

Following Trump's reelection, FBI director Christopher Wray resigned, and the president appointed Kash Patel, a devoted Trump supporter and longtime aide, to lead the agency. Patel was asked if he knew of any intentions to discipline FBI agents participating in Trump's probes during his confirmation hearing before a Senate committee on Thursday. "I am not aware of that," he said. To the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patel added, " all FBI employees will be protected against political retribution."