Trump plans to eliminate the entirety of Smith’s team, including career attorneys typically protected from political retribution, according to a report from the Washington Post. Smith had previously said he will resign from the post and wind down his federal cases against Trump before he takes the oath of office in January. 

In June 2023, Smith indicted Trump on charges that he unlawfully retained classified documents and obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve them. In August 2023, Trump was indicted on four felony counts related to his efforts to overthrow the 2020 election and the subsequent deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. 

Trump pleaded not guilty to both cases, and the classified documents case was later thrown out. Each case was riddled with delays as Trump’s legal team appealed various aspects of the prosecutions, including an immunity challenge brought by Trump in his federal election subversion case that made its way to the Supreme Court.

During his campaign, Trump ran on overhauling the Department of Justice, which he claims is weaponized against him. As he becomes president, Trump “wants to clean out ‘the bad guys, the people who went after me,’” someone familiar with his plans told the outlet.

Smith’s office is composed of dozens of attorneys, FBI agents, and support staff from various parts of the Justice Department. Those who worked for Smith on the Trump cases likely did not choose to do so and were rather assigned to the job.

Most of Smith’s team are mid- and upper-level career staffers on detail to the special counsel’s team from divisions within the main Justice Department in Washington, D.C., or from U.S. attorneys’ offices throughout the country.

In previous special counsel investigations, these types of staff attorneys typically return to their regular jobs after their temporary assignments end. Some of Smith’s teams have already done just that.

“President Trump campaigned on firing rogue bureaucrats who have engaged in the illegal weaponization of our American justice system, and the American people can expect he will deliver on that promise,” Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on the matter.

House Republicans previously told Justice Department officials that anyone who had worked on the Trump cases with Smith should preserve all of their communications in a move that signaled that Smith, among others, could be targeted by congressional investigators.

Trump also apparently plans to use the DOJ to investigate the 2020 election in which he lost to President Joe Biden but has continued to claim that his loss was due to widespread cheating. Many investigations have found no proof of the widespread voter fraud Trump and his GOP allies claimed.

Since his loss four years ago, Trump has used vague language to suggest that he would try to prosecute state officials who did not go along with his plan to overturn the results of the election.

“Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in September.