Friday news dump: Trump admin fires 30 USAO DC prosecutors for political reasons

The Post just reported that DC's interim US Attorney fired 30 prosecutors at 5pm today, including some who were assigned to prosecute violent crime in DC. They were fired because they previously worked on January 6 cases.

From the Post story:

The cuts amount to about 8 percent of the office’s prosecutors. Combined with a recently announced freeze on hiring and promotions, the openings will have impacts across the office’s civil, appellate, Superior Court and violent crime divisions, where some prosecutors had been previously reassigned.

This is, to be perfectly blunt, fucking crazy. And not just because of politics-- because this will actively make the city less safe!

USAO DC's Superior Court and violent crime divisions are responsible for prosecuting nearly every serious crime committed in DC. (The AG's office prosecutes juvenile crime and some low-level misdemeanors, but USAO prosecutes everything else.)

More:

The cuts will particularly affect the office’s shorthanded appellate and Superior Court divisions, slashing ranks of prosecutors who handle misdemeanor cases and having a domino affect as vacancies require backfilling, a former government official familiar with the office said.

“If you get rid of those people, there’s no one to replace them. That’s a lot of cases you’re not going to be able to bring in Superior Court,” said that person.

USAO already has a pretty miserable prosecution rate and this is going to make things worse. And these people claim to be "tough on crime."