A prosecutor appointed by US President Donald Trump has launched an internal review of the Justice Department's decision to indict hundreds of people for crimes related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol storming, Reuters reported, citing information from the "Wall Street Journal".
The newspaper reports that Ed Martin, acting director of the US Bureau of Organized Crime, asked prosecutors on Monday to turn over files, documents, memos, emails and other information related to the case.
Trump pardons more than 1,500 defendants linked to the Capitol storming, including some who attacked police officers employees.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has fired more than a dozen employees who worked on the case of special counsel Jack Smith in the cases against President Donald Trump on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat and mishandling classified documents, Fox News reported, citing Reuters.
The employees were fired after acting Attorney General James McHenry said they could not be trusted to "good faith execute the president's agenda."
Smith, who resigned before Trump took office, concluded in a report released this month that the president engaged in an "unprecedented criminal effort" to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. But Smith said he was obstructed to sue Trump for his election victory in November.
Trump's lawyers called Smith's report politically motivated. The president denies any wrongdoing in the cases, which Smith dropped shortly after Trump's election victory.
Meanwhile, a man convicted for his role in the Capitol storming and pardoned by Trump was shot by police after refusing to obey a police order, Agence France-Presse reported, citing police in the state of Indiana.
Matthew Huttle was sentenced to six months in prison and released last July. He was among the 1,500 people pardoned by Trump. At the time of the incident in which he was shot, he was carrying a firearm and did not obey a police order not to resist.