Michael Ben’Ary was just driving his kid to soccer practice when his work phone went dead. No warning. No meeting with HR. Just a bricked device and, later, a cold email in his personal inbox saying he was out of a job. After two decades of handling some of the most sensitive counterterrorism cases in the country, the veteran prosecutor found himself on the outside looking in.
This isn't just one guy’s bad Tuesday. It’s part of a sweeping transformation where the Justice Department fires more employees investigating Trump or those perceived as "disloyal" to the current administration. Since January 2025, the DOJ has undergone a personnel shift so massive it’s hard to wrap your head around. We’re talking about centuries of institutional memory walking out the door—either by force or because they can’t stomach the new direction.
The Purge of the Special Counsel Teams
The most direct hits landed right at the start. Almost immediately after the inauguration, the axe fell on the teams that had spent years digging into the former president’s legal troubles. Acting Attorney General James McHenry didn't mince words back then, basically saying he didn't trust these folks to carry out the new agenda because of their "significant role" in prosecuting Donald Trump.
- The Smith Team: Prosecutors who worked under Special Counsel Jack Smith were some of the first to go. Names like J.P. Cooney, Molly Gaston, and Mary Dohrmann—career lawyers who had been in the trenches for years—were terminated abruptly.
- Support Staff: It wasn't just the lead attorneys. Paralegals, finance experts, and support staff who simply did the paperwork for the classified documents case and the January 6th probe were also cleared out.
- The "Weaponization" Review: Attorney General Pam Bondi’s "Weaponization Working Group" has been the primary engine for these removals. They’ve been reviewing DOJ history to find anyone who had a hand in investigations the administration deems "politically motivated."
Honestly, it feels less like a standard administration change and more like a total reset. When you look at the numbers, "Justice Connection," a group of DOJ alums, estimates over 230 employees were fired in just one year. That’s a lot of empty desks in buildings that used to be the backbone of federal law enforcement.
💡 You might also like: Blanket Primary Explained: Why This Voting System Is So Controversial
Why the Firings Are Still Happening in 2026
You might think they’d be done by now, but the departures have actually accelerated or shifted into a different kind of pressure. Just this month, we’ve seen a wave of resignations in Minnesota and D.C. that are indirectly tied to the new DOJ philosophy.
Take the Civil Rights Division. It’s been gutted. Reports suggest a roughly 70% reduction in staff since the second term began. In some units, like Public Integrity—which is supposed to watch over corrupt politicians—there were only two lawyers left out of a 36-person team at one point.
The reasoning from the top is pretty consistent: they want to end the "weaponization" of the government. From their perspective, these employees were part of a "deep state" resistance. But for the people leaving, it’s a matter of principle. They’re being told to investigate the families of people shot by federal agents rather than the agents themselves, or to prioritize voter fraud cases that career experts say don't really exist.
📖 Related: Asiana Flight 214: What Really Happened During the South Korean Air Crash in San Francisco
The Cost of Losing Experience
When a guy like Ben’Ary gets fired, you don’t just lose a body; you lose the guy who knows how to prosecute a suicide bomb plot or a DEA agent’s murder. You lose the "bulwark" that keeps the department running regardless of who is in the White House.
According to various reports, more than 6,400 employees left the DOJ by the end of 2025. While the department says they’ve hired thousands of new career attorneys to fill the gaps, critics argue that fresh recruits can’t replace twenty years of trial experience. It’s kinda like trying to replace a veteran heart surgeon with a gifted med student—they might have the degree, but you’d probably want the guy who’s seen it all before when things get messy.
The Role of Social Media and Commentators
One of the weirdest parts of this current wave is how "crowdsourced" some of the firings seem. Ben’Ary’s termination happened just hours after right-wing commentators online pointed out he had once worked for Lisa Monaco, a high-ranking official in the Biden administration.
👉 See also: 2024 Presidential Election Map Live: What Most People Get Wrong
This has created a "great deal of fear" inside the building. Employees are scrubbed from public view, worried that a single tweet from a popular pundit could result in their phone being disabled by the time they hit a red light on the way home. It's a high-stress environment where the "north star" of following facts wherever they lead has been replaced by the need to stay off the radar.
What This Means for Future Federal Investigations
If the department is being restaffed by people specifically chosen to implement a political agenda, the very nature of federal prosecution changes. We’re already seeing it with the appointment of people like Lindsey Halligan—a White House aide with no previous experience as a federal prosecutor—to lead high-profile offices.
- Shift in Priorities: Resources are moving away from traditional civil rights and environmental enforcement toward immigration surges and "voter integrity" units.
- Legal Challenges: Many of these firings are being challenged in court. Some judges have already ordered reinstatements, calling the terminations "unlawful" or "indefensible."
- Backlogs: With so many people gone, the daily business of the DOJ—the stuff that doesn't make the news—is slowing down.
Actionable Insights for the Path Ahead
If you’re following this story or work in a related field, here is what you should be watching for in the coming months:
- Monitor the SCOTUS Dockets: Cases like Trump v. Cook are going to define exactly how much power a president has to fire "protected" career employees. The rulings here will set the precedent for the next fifty years of government.
- Watch the "Early Retirement" Trends: Many senior leaders aren't being fired; they're being offered "deferred resignation" or early retirement. Tracking these numbers gives a better picture of the "brain drain" than just looking at fire-and-hire stats.
- Follow the Special Counsel Testimony: Jack Smith is set to testify publicly before a House committee soon. His account of what his team faced—and how they were dismantled—will provide the first-hand narrative that's currently missing from the official DOJ press releases.
The reality is that the Justice Department is in the middle of a massive identity crisis. Whether you see it as a necessary house-cleaning or a dangerous purge depends largely on your politics, but the loss of institutional expertise is an objective fact that will affect the American legal system for a long time.