Attorney General Pam Bondi this week fired multiple Justice Department employees who were involved in two federal prosecutions of President Donald Trump during the Biden administration, according to several people familiar with the terminations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution. In total, 20 people were fired from the department, including two prosecutors who worked under former special counsel Jack Smith, according to one person familiar with the removals. The rest of the dismissed employees were support staff and U.S. marshals who assisted those prosecutors, the person said.

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Smith, who was appointed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, led the department’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, as well as a separate case focused on Trump’s mishandling of classified documents found in his Mar-a-Lago home.

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A representative for the Justice Department declined to comment Saturday on the firings, which were first reported by Axios.

Trump had long referred to the pair of investigations Smith led as part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” against him. During the 2024 campaign, he vowed to fire Smith on his first day back in the White House if he won the election. Smith resigned from the Justice Department shortly before Inauguration Day in January after winding down the federal criminal cases against Trump, which prosecutors said could no longer go forward because of long-standing Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

As part of the election-related investigation, Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2023 on four criminal counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. In the classified documents case, Trump faced charges that included willful retention of national defense secrets, obstruction of justice and conspiracy.

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However, neither case went to trial. The election-interference indictment was delayed after a Supreme Court ruling last summer greatly expanded presidential immunity for actions taken while in office. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon in Florida tossed the classified documents indictment two weeks later, ruling Smith had been unlawfully appointed. The Justice Department initially appealed that ruling but no decision was reached.

The latest firings come as the Trump administration continues to push out employees across the Justice Department and FBI, often with no explanation or warning. The efforts are creating rampant speculation and fear within the workforce over who might be terminated next, according to multiple people with knowledge of the removals.

Some people are simply fired, given a notice signed by Bondi that cites the broad powers afforded to the president in the U.S. Constitution. Others, particularly at the FBI, are told they can leave voluntarily, be demoted or be terminated.

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The removals appear more individually targeted — and are happening in smaller numbers — than the high-profile ousters of senior Justice Department and FBI officials in the early months of Trump’s second term, when he vowed to clean house at the department that had brought two criminal cases against him.