Staff Reporter

The Trump administration has embarked on a campaign of retribution against the Justice Department, targeting and removing prosecutors who investigated and convicted those involved in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

This purge, described by a White House spokesman as uprooting the foot soldiers, follows President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons for nearly all January 6 defendants.

The firings and demotions have shaken the institution, with officials expressing concern that the department is being weaponized for political score-settling rather than upholding the rule of law.

For federal prosecutor Michael Gordon, the consequences were swift and abrupt.

After eight years of distinguished service and a recent outstanding performance review, he was fired via a terse letter signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi. The letter provided no justification, but Gordon, who successfully prosecuted Jan. 6 rioters, believes the reason was clear: he was being punished for doing his job.

His termination, he said, confirms his belief that the Justice Department is now helping to whitewash a traumatic event in American history.

Gordon is one of more than two dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors, roughly a quarter of the total, who have been fired or demoted.

Many more have resigned out of fear or disgust.

The transformation began after Trump’s re-election, when he granted clemency to nearly 1,600 people charged in the Jan. 6 investigation.

The new administration, under Attorney General Bondi and newly appointed U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, a Jan. 6 attendee, began dismissing cases and targeting career lawyers.

A week after Inauguration Day, more than a dozen prosecutors who had worked on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into Trump were fired. Days later, another 15 junior prosecutors from the Jan. 6 task force were dismissed.

The administration justified the firings by stating the employees could no longer be trusted to faithfully implement the president’s agenda.