WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday fired at least nine more Justice Department employees who worked for Special Counsel Jack Smith to investigate President Donald Trump's retention of classified records and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to five people familiar with the matter.

At least two of the people fired were prosecutors who most recently worked in other U.S. Attorney's offices in Florida and North Carolina, three of the sources told Reuters.

The other seven people served as support staff to Smith's team, two other sources said.

The Justice Department since January has been purging employees who worked on matters involving President Donald Trump or his supporters.

Fourteen attorneys who worked on Smith's team were fired on January 27 because of work on cases against Trump, becoming some of the department's earliest casualties in the purge.

Including the people fired on Friday, at least 26 people who worked on Smith's team have been terminated since Trump took office on January 20.

The Justice Department in recent months has also fired people who handled casework involving defendants who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's 2020 election win.

In late June, two prosecutors and a supervisor, one of whom had worked on cases involving the Proud Boys, were fired. Earlier this month, Bondi also fired a career veteran of the department who served as a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington.

In late January, the Justice Department also fired probationary prosecutors who had worked on January 6 cases.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Tom Hogue)

By Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward