Firings and resignations at the Department of Justice in first weeks of the Trump administration

The U.S. Department of Justice is reeling tonight from firings and resignations in the first weeks of the Trump administration. One senior leader describes a workplace of “confusion” and “fear.” The Justice Department wields enormous power through the FBI and federal prosecutors. It is critical to crime fighting and national security. But even more, the Justice Department is where Americans look for the rule of law. President Trump has been a target of its investigations during the Biden administration. Now, Trump says, his administration is cleaning up a Justice Department corrupted by politics. Fear has silenced many in the department. But two prosecutors we met, chose to speak up.

Sara Levine: The Justice Department is under attack. They’re coming after the people that want to uphold the laws that exist. And that should be terrifying to everyone. 

Sara Levine and Sean Brennan were federal prosecutors on the Justice Department’s biggest investigation – the attack on the Capitol – until they were fired by the Trump administration January 31st. 

Scott Pelley: Why were you fired?

Sara Levine: Because I did my job. I mean, it’s really that simple, is, I went in. I followed the facts. I followed the law. And I got fired because I did exactly what I was supposed to do. 

Sean Brennan: I think we know what we did was right. No regrets, absolutely none. 

Sara Levine: What we did was justice. 

‘Justice’ for 140 police officers wounded January 6th, 2021. Levine and Brennan were hired, about a year and a half ago, to prosecute cases from the riot.

Scott Pelley: And in how many of your cases was the defendant acquitted?

Sean Brennan: None. 

Sara Levine: None.

Scott Pelley: Which tells you what?

Sara Levine: The evidence was overwhelming.

Overwhelming but, last month, the president pardoned even the most violent convicts —whom he calls by another name.

President Trump (on Jan. 20, 2025, in the Oval Office): So this is January 6th, these are the hostages, approximately 1,500, for a pardon. Full pardon.

Not long after the ink was dry, letters of termination hit the Justice Department. The letters rewrote history, calling the prosecution itself, in the words of the president, “a grave national injustice.”

Sean Brennan: Anyone who has watched videos of what happened on January 6th,…