WASHINGTON — The White House terminated as many as a dozen U.S. attorneys Wednesday evening amid a period of upheaval at the Justice Department initiated by President Donald Trump, who was himself a criminal defendant in two separate federal cases until they were dropped after his election in November.
An NBC News review of a list of U.S. attorneys, which was updated on Thursday, found that 12 names had been changed from a list two days prior.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment, and a Justice Department spokesman could not immediately provide a figure for how many of the country's 93 U.S. attorneys in federal court districts across the country were affected.
The remaining U.S. attorneys who were nominated by former President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate were expected to leave at some point, but their immediate terminations by the White House were a departure from history. In the past, politically appointed U.S. attorneys had been asked to resign by the Justice Department.
The terminations affected at least two court-appointed U.S. attorneys, one of them a career federal prosecutor who had worked Jan. 6 cases. A spokesperson for that court-appointed U.S. attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, Tara McGrath, was “informed of her termination in a communication from the White House, at the direction of the President of the United States," McGrath’s office said in a news release.
The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, Ismail Ramsey, also received a termination letter from the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The U.S. attorney for Maryland, Erek L. Barron, and the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, Dena J. King, both announced their departures Wednesday but did not provide reasons. McGrath, Ramsey, Barron and King were Biden nominees confirmed by the Senate.
The U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, Tessa Gorman, who was a court-appointed top federal prosecutor, “was removed from her post,” a spokesperson said. Gorman took on the role in an acting capacity before former Attorney General Merrick Garland named her to the job. The judges of the Western District of Washington named her to the position in May.
A source familiar with the matter told NBC News that one of the fired U.S. attorneys received a letter from Trent Morse, the deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, that read: “At the direction of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as U.S. Attorney is terminated, effective immediately.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., announced Thursday on X that Jonathan Ross, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, had also been fired but that the notice was "sent in error." Cotton said that after he spoke with senior White House officials, Ross was reinstated.
The White House’s direct involvement in the firings is unusual, as such decisions typically come from the Justice Department. During Trump’s first term, Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked U.S. attorneys to resign, and only one was terminated after having refused to resign.
During Biden’s term, Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys were asked to resign and were given three weeks to leave at a set date, while a number of interim U.S. attorneys who were not Senate-confirmed (including those appointed by courts) remained. That action also originated from the Justice Department.
Since Trump took office 24 days ago, the Justice Department has been through a tremendous period of unrest. It started the day he was inaugurated, when he issued a mass pardon for Jan. 6 rioters convicted in the biggest federal investigation in American history and then named an advocate for Capitol rioters as the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
Since then, Trump's acting deputy attorney general — who himself worked Jan. 6 cases — fired federal prosecutors who had originally been hired to work Capitol cases and demanded a list of FBI employees who investigated the Capitol siege. The Trump administration also demanded a list of probationary FBI employees, raising fears of mass firings that would affect the bureau for years to come.
