Miami federal prosecutor among those fired by Justice Department for roles in Trump cases
.jpeg "Michael Thakur was among a dozen-plus federal prosecutors fired by the Justice Department for their roles in the classified documents and Jan. 6 cases against Donald Trump.")
When Michael Thakur was hired as a prosecutor by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, he had graduated from Harvard Law School and worked as a clerk for the preeminent judge on the federal appeals court in the Southeast.
Over the span of nearly two decades, Thakur prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases — including many in the national security section, before assisting in the Palm Beach classified documents case against former president Donald Trump.
On Monday, Thakur was fired along with more than a dozen federal prosecutors by Acting Attorney General James McHenry. In an electronic letter, McHenry cited their roles in either the documents case or the election-interference case arising from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol — both brought against Trump by the former special counsel, Jack Smith.
Thakur could not be reached for comment.
Second seasoned prosecutor let go
In addition to Thakur, McHenry fired a former prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, Anne McNamara. After prosecuting hundreds of cases in Miami, she joined the Justice Department in Washington and worked on Smith’s team in the documents case against Trump.
At the same time as the firings, the Justice Department also shook up the top ranks of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami. Hayden O’Byrne was appointed as the “interim” U.S. Attorney, replacing Markenzy Lapointe, who resigned before Trump was sworn in as president last week. Lapointe was the first Haitian-American in that top post.
READ MORE: Miami U.S. Attorney, first Haitian-American in post, to resign before Trump takes office
O’Byrne, a 2008 graduate of the University of Miami School of Law who has been active in the conservative Federalist Society, joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office during Trump’s first term as president.
Played role in ‘prosecuting’ Trump, letter says
In firing the career prosecutors, McHenry highlighted their participation in the Trump prosecutions brought by the former Justice Department during Joe Biden’s term as president.
“You played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” the acting attorney general’s letter said. “The proper functioning of government critically depends on the trust superior officials place in their subordinates. Given your significant role in prosecuting the president, I do not believe that the leadership of the department can trust you to assist in implementing the president’s agenda faithfully.”
Both the documents and Jan. 6 cases were dismissed against Trump after he won the 2024 presidential election. Smith informed the federal judges in South Florida and Washington presiding over the two cases that Justice Department policy forbids the prosecution of a sitting president.
It is not clear which members of Smith’s team were terminated, but the firings made good on Trump’s campaign promise to purge the Justice Department. Last week, the president signed an executive order to take on the “weaponization of the federal government,” which is how he described Smith’s prosecutions over the past year during the presidential campaign. Smith was appointed as the special counsel by Merrick Garland, the former attorney general in the Biden administration.
Current and former prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Florida and Washington condemned the acting attorney general’s firings, saying they’re entirely based on politics, not on performance — a critical legal distinction that is likely to lead to a slew of civil service lawsuits brought by the fired career prosecutors.
‘Dark moment’ in Justice Department
“These unprecedented firings, especially of long-time career prosecutors, represent a dark moment in the history of the Department of Justice,” said Marcos Jimenez, a Miami lawyer who served as U.S. Attorney in South Florida during the George W. Bush administration.
“Career prosecutors play a vital role in our justice system, helping to ensure fairness and impartiality regardless of which political party happens to be in power,” Jimenez said. “Their removal tarnishes the integrity of the Department and sends a troubling message that loyalty to Trump and his inner circle matters more than the rule of law.”
The letter sent by the acting attorney general acknowledged that the fired prosecutors may appeal the decisions to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, which adjudicates the discipline of federal employees. According to the board, one of its “primary functions is to protect ... against partisan political and other prohibited personnel practices” in deciding employee appeals.
Legal experts say civil servants cannot be summarily fired. If the Justice Department finds prosecutors are not performing properly, they must be subject to progressive discipline, including warnings and notices. They must be allowed to hire lawyers before they lose their jobs.
Likened to ‘Saturday Night Massacre’ under Nixon
Prominent South Florida white-collar defense attorney Jon Sale, who was a member of the Watergate prosecution’s team, said the firings by Trump’s Justice Department conjures up then-President Richard Nixon’s controversial move to have special prosecutor Archibald Cox fired because he refused to withdraw a subpoena for the Nixon White House tapes.
In what became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox, but Richardson refused and resigned. Then, the president ordered the AG’s deputy, William Ruckelshaus, to fire Cox. He also refused and resigned. Nixon finally prevailed when he ordered the Justice Department’s solicitor general, Robert Bork, to terminate Cox — a move that backfired on Nixon during the Watergate scandal.
Sale said that in the aftermath of Watergate, it was generally understood as a matter of policy that there would be “no contact” between the president and the attorney general regarding investigations and prosecutions.
But the Justice Department’s independence from the White House was officially torn down last year. In an historic 6-3 opinion, the Supreme Court ruled that former President Trump was generally immune from criminal liability for his official acts — including his attempts to use the Justice Department to obstruct the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.
The court’s conservative majority found that “the President may discuss potential investigations and prosecutions with his Attorney General and other Justice Department officials to carry out his constitutional duty to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’ ” under Article II of the Constitution.
Bondi pledges Justice Department won’t be weaponized
During her Senate confirmation hearing in mid-January, Pam Bondi, the Florida Republican nominated by Trump for Attorney General, said she would keep politics out of the Justice Department — despite refusing to say that Trump lost the 2020 election and previously saying “prosecutors will be prosecuted.”
“The partisanship, the weaponization, will be gone,” Bondi testified before the Senate. “America will have one tier of justice for all.”
Bondi then vowed: “There will never be an enemy’s list within the Department of Justice.”
Sale, who worked on Bondi’s transition team when she was the Florida Attorney General, said he has a “great deal of confidence in Bondi’s integrity.”
“Even though she is understandably loyal to the President,” he said, “under her leadership the Department of Justice will be independent, and she will run it free of politics.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 5:55 PM.
