CNN
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The Justice Department has fired at least a dozen employees in recent weeks who at one time worked with former special counsel Jack Smith, ranging from a senior ethics official to low-level support staff, sources familiar with matter tell CNN.
The firings indicate that the Trump administration is still searching high and low for any person who had a hand in the special counsel’s work, which resulted in two federal indictments against Donald Trump. Both cases were dismissed once he was reelected.
Trump has long said that Smith’s investigations amounted to a political “witch hunt,” and vowed to go after anyone who led or helped in that effort. Several career prosecutors on the cases have already been fired.
Joseph Tirrell, who until last week was responsible for advising Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directly on ethics matters, posted a short letter advising him of his dismissal that did not provide a rationale for the termination. Tirrell had been director of the departmental ethics office since July 2023, according to DOJ.
“Until Friday evening, I was the senior ethics attorney at the Department of Justice responsible for advising the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General directly on federal employee ethics,” Tirrell wrote on LinkedIn. “I was also responsible for the day-to-day operations of the ethics program across the Department.”
He added: “My public service is not over, and my career as a Federal civil servant is not finished. I took the oath at 18 as a Midshipman to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States’… That oath did not come with the caveat that I need only support the Constitution when it is easy or convenient.”
The Justice Department and Tirrell have not responded to CNN’s requests for comment.
CNN’s Evan Perez contributed to this report.
