It was late afternoon on the last Friday in June, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Gordon was in his office in Tampa, Florida, interviewing a victim for an upcoming trial via Zoom.

Alongside a special agent, Gordon was preparing the victim to be a witness in a Justice Department case against a lawyer who the Justice Department alleged had been scamming clients.

There was a knock at the door, Gordon later told NBC News, and he didn’t answer; at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Florida, there was a culture of not just popping in when the door is closed. But the door popped open, and there stood the office manager, ashen-faced.

The office manager is in charge of security, and Gordon thought for a moment that something might have happened to his family. Gordon muted the Zoom call, and the office manager handed him a piece of paper.

It was a one-page letter signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi. He’d been terminated from federal service.

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