by the Trump administration targeting attorneys connected to the massive prosecution of the January 6, 2021 attack, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Those dismissed include two attorneys who worked as supervisors overseeing the January 6 prosecutions in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, as well as a line attorney who prosecuted cases stemming from the Capitol attack, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

A letter received by one of the prosecutors was signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi. The letter did not provide a reason for their immediate removal, citing only “Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States,” according to a copy seen by The Associated Press. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment Friday evening.

The terminations mark yet another escalation of norm-shattering moves that have raised alarm over the Trump administration’s disregard for civil service protections for career lawyers and the erosion of the Justice Department’s independence from the White House. Top leaders at the Justice Department have also fired employees who worked on prosecutions against Trump and demoted several career supervisors, in what has been seen as an effort to purge the agency of lawyers viewed as insufficiently loyal.

Trump’s sweeping pardons of the January 6 rioters have fueled concerns about retaliatory actions against attorneys involved in prosecuting the more than 1,500 Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify President Joe Biden’s election victory. Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of them on his first day back in the White House, releasing people convicted of seditious conspiracy and violent assaults on police.

During his time as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, Ed Martin in February demoted several prosecutors involved in the January 6 cases, including the attorney who served as chief of the Capitol Siege Section. Others demoted include two lawyers who helped secure seditious conspiracy convictions against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio.

In January, then–acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the firings of about two dozen prosecutors who had been hired for temporary assignments to support the January 6 cases but had moved into permanent roles after Trump’s presidential win in November. Bove said he would not “tolerate subversive personnel actions by the previous administration.” (CNN)