EXCLUSIVE: A previously identified anti-Trump FBI agent allegedly broke protocol and played a critical role in opening and advancing the bureau’s original investigation related to the 2020 election, tying President Trump to the probe without sufficient predication.

Plus: Kash Patel, Trump's pick to lead the FBI, and his role in Jan. 6 misinformation | Trump pledges sweeping tariffs on steel, semiconductors

The Justice Department employees had been involved in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation that led to Trump's classified documents and Jan. 6 cases.

Top House Democrats say that the way in which Jack Smith's staffers were fired "very likely violated longstanding federal laws."

Mr. Trump has declared on Truth Social that Mr. Smith “should be prosecuted for election interference & prosecutorial misconduct.” The president has also called him a “career criminal.” He also reposted the radio host Mark Levin’s view that “Jack Smith must go to prison.”

The DOJ official argued that the firings are in line with the Trump administration’s “mission of ending the weaponization of government.”

Trump vowed to rid the Justice Department of what he says is partisan bias. Ex-officials say he's using retaliation and intimidation to thwart potential investigations of his second term.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding to see the volume of special counsel Jack Smith’s report dealing with the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation, asserting it has

The department’s motion to drop the case was signed by Hayden O’Byrne, who was appointed as the “interim” U.S. Attorney in Miami on Monday at the same time as the firings. O’Byrne, a member of the conservative Federalist Society, was hired as a prosecutor by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2019.

In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda.”