US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday dismissed at least nine additional Justice Department employees who were part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team investigating President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to five sources familiar with the matter.

Among those fired were two prosecutors recently working in U.S. Attorney’s offices in Florida and North Carolina, three sources told Reuters. The remaining seven were members of the support staff for Smith’s team, two other sources confirmed.

This latest round of dismissals brings the total number of employees removed from Smith’s former team to at least 26 since Trump assumed office on 20 January. The firings are part of what insiders describe as a growing purge of department staff involved in Trump-related prosecutions or in cases against his supporters.

Fourteen attorneys from the special counsel’s team were among the first to be let go on 27 January, just a week into Trump’s second term.

The Justice Department has also terminated staff involved in prosecutions of individuals linked to the January 6 Capitol riot. In June, two prosecutors and a supervisor—one of whom had worked on cases involving the far-right Proud Boys—were dismissed. Earlier in July, a long-serving DOJ spokesperson based in Washington was also fired.

Probationary prosecutors tied to the January 6 investigation were quietly removed in late January.

The Trump administration and Bondi have not publicly commented on the rationale behind the mass firings, but legal experts say the moves signal a dramatic shift in priorities under the new administration and raise serious concerns over judicial independence and political interference in the Justice Department.

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