Mr. Trump has declared on Truth Social that Mr. Smith “should be prosecuted for election interference & prosecutorial misconduct.” The president has also called him a “career criminal.” He also reposted the radio host Mark Levin’s view that “Jack Smith must go to prison.”

The acting attorney general said these officials could not be trusted to "faithfully implement the president's agenda."

The DOJ is continuing its push to release the remaining volume of special counsel Jack Smith's final report, covering his Jan. 6 probe, to select members of Congress.

In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda.”

Trump vowed to rid the Justice Department of what he says is partisan bias. Ex-officials say he's using retaliation and intimidation to thwart potential investigations of his second term.

The Justice Department employees had been involved in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation that led to Trump's classified documents and Jan. 6 cases.

The Justice Department has terminated over a dozen employees linked to President Trump's prosecutions, signalling a shift in departmental loyalty.

In termination letters sent to more than a dozen officials, acting Attorney General James McHenry wrote that he did not believe they "could be trusted to faithfully implement the President's agenda."

The Justice Department said Monday that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of President Donald Trump, moving rapidly to pursue retribution against lawyers involved in the investigations and signaling an early willingness to take action favorable to the president's personal interests.

The firings are the latest fallout from investigations into Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.