SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The new leadership in the Trump Justice Department continues to take actions against career prosecutors. Yesterday, the acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., demoted several senior attorneys, including those who oversaw cases against President Trump's political allies and January 6 rioters. NPR's justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us. Ryan, thank you for being with us.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Thanks for having me.
SIMON: What can you tell us about these demotions?
LUCAS: Well, sources tell me and our colleague Carrie Johnson that the acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, demoted at least seven top prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office here. One of them is John Crabb. He was a supervisor in the office. He was involved in the cases against Trump allies Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro. He also oversaw January 6 cases. Another prosecutor is Greg Rosen. He led the Capitol siege unit. That's the unit that prosecuted January 6 cases. And then two of the other attorneys who were demoted worked on two of the most high-profile cases to come out of the Capitol Riot investigation.
One of the attorneys helped lead the prosecution against Stewart Rhodes. He's the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group. Rhodes was convicted at trial of seditious conspiracy. One of the other attorneys helped spearhead the case against Enrique Tarrio, the former head of the Proud Boys extremist group. Tarrio, as well, was convicted of seditious conspiracy at trial. So the bottom line here is all of the attorneys who were demoted were senior prosecutors with a lot of experience, and now they're being reassigned to basically entry-level jobs.
SIMON: Was a reason given?
LUCAS: Well, one source tells me that Martin notified these individuals by email. In at least one of the emails, Martin said that every U.S. attorney has to assess the needs of their office as set forth by the president and the attorney general and, in essence, their priorities. And, therefore, these senior prosecutors were being reassigned, effective immediately. Then at least one of the emails ended by saying this change is not temporary.
Now, I'm told that some of the senior prosecutors were assigned to misdemeanors, which is where brand-new prosecutors in the office are usually assigned. Others were demoted to what's known as the intake section, which is also for junior folks in the office. One person I spoke with described these demotions as pure political retribution for working on cases that the Trump administration does not like.
Now, I contacted the U.S. attorney's office about these actions for comment. It did not respond, but this is not the first time that Ed Martin, the acting U.S. attorney here, has taken what appear to be retaliatory action against the office he leads. He previously fired more than a dozen prosecutors in his office who worked January 6 cases. So this is just the latest turmoil to hit the U.S. attorney's office here in D.C., which is one of the most important in the country.
SIMON: And what could this mean ahead for the Justice Department?
LUCAS: Well, first off, these demotions and firings of career prosecutors for what appear to be retaliatory reasons are all being undertaken by an administration that says it is ending the politicization of the Justice Department. That's something that we hear quite often from Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi. But Justice Department veterans say the DOJ under the Trump administration has cut breaks for Trump's political allies, for example, moving to drop the case against former Republican Congressman Jeff Fortenberry. You can also point to prosecutors withdrawing from an investigation against sitting Republican Congressman Andy Ogles.
And then, of course, there's the department's decision to drop the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Adams has pledged to cooperate with the Trump administration's immigration enforcement. The decision to drop that case set off an uproar. More than a half dozen veteran Justice Department prosecutors resigned in protest. That includes the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, who said that there was no good-faith basis for dropping the Adams prosecution. So all of these things have really rattled the Justice Department and the career - that apolitical career - folks who work there. So this is undoubtedly a very, very turbulent time for the Justice Department.
SIMON: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas. Thanks so much.
LUCAS: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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