GOP Senator Says Trump Should ‘Immediately Fire’ DOJ Staff Involved in Cases Against Him

“Getting it back to crime fighting is important, but there has to be accountability for these kinds of abuses,” Sen. Eric Schmitt said

Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt said that one of Donald Trump‘s first priorities in office should be to exact revenge. He suggested that Trump get rid of any Justice Department employees who were involved in cases that brought charges against the former president.

“First and foremost, the people involved with this should be fired immediately,” Schmitt, who was a contender for Trump’s attorney general nomination, said on Sunday’s Meet the Press.

“Anybody part of this effort to keep President Trump off the ballot and to throw him in jail for the rest of his life because they didn’t like his politics and to continue to cast him as a quote, unquote threat to democracy was wrong, and so we’ll see where that goes,” he added.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading criminal investigations into Trump’s role in attempting to subvert the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents, has said he plans to wind down his efforts ahead of Trump’s inauguration due to the “unprecedented circumstance” that the defendant was elected president. The Justice Department has long upheld a policy of not prosecuting presidents. Smith could still author a report on his findings, but Attorney General Merrick Garland would decide whether or not to release it publicly.

Trump has threatened he will fire Smith and his entire team within “two seconds” of returning to power. This past August, Trump re-shared a post on Truth Social that said Smith “should be prosecuted for election interference & prosecutorial misconduct.”

As Rolling Stone reported in August, Trump has planned since 2021 — when he left office — to indict those he perceives to be his enemies. In addition to Smith, that includes Garland, President Joe Biden, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and others. Trump continued to threaten retribution during the 2024 presidential campaign.

“There are almost too many targets to keep track of,” a Trump adviser familiar with the discussions told Rolling Stone.

Pam Bondi is Trump’s choice for attorney general following former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s withdrawing his own nomination due to allegations in a House Ethics Committee report that he had sex multiple times with a 17-year-old. Bondi has endorsed Trump’s revenge plans, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity in 2023 that when Trump returns to the White House, “the Department of Justice, the prosecutors, will be prosecuted.”

“The investigators will be investigated,” Bondi added, “because the deep state — last term for President Trump — they were hiding in the shadows. But now they have a spotlight on them, and they can all be investigated and the house needs to be cleaned out.”

Schmitt said he will be a “yes” vote on Bondi’s nomination. He also confirmed he will vote to confirm Trump’s choices of Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence.