"Clean out the bad guys": Trump wants to fire Smith's entire DOJ team, per report

It doesn't seem like Trump will be satisfied with just showing Jack Smith the door

By Griffin Eckstein

News Fellow

Published November 22, 2024 9:34PM (EST)

Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former U.S. President Donald Trump on August 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former U.S. President Donald Trump on August 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Donald Trump has made it clear that he plans to oust Special Counsel Jack Smith almost immediately after taking office, but a new report suggests that the president-elect won't be satisfied with just one pink slip.

The Washington Post spoke to members of Trump’s transition who said that Trump plans to fire everyone who worked on Smith's two doomed cases against him. Smith wound down those cases days after Trump's win and has reportedly made plans to be out of office before Trump is inaugurated.

A source on Trump's transition team who spoke to the Post said the president-elect “wants to clean out ‘the bad guys.’” Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt seemed to echo that rhetoric in an official statement from team Trump.

“President Trump campaigned on firing rogue bureaucrats who have engaged in the illegal weaponization of our American justice system, and the American people can expect he will deliver on that promise,” she told the outlet.

Trump also talked of enemies within the Department of Justice when nominating Pam Bondi for attorney general. 

“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”

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