Abrupt firings, senior officials demoted, and career employees left reeling -- US President Donald Trump is taking a sledgehammer to a Justice Department he accuses of unjustly prosecuting him. Across the Justice Department a number of high-ranking officials have been demoted or reassigned in moves by the new administration that have unsettled career employees.

Attorney General Merrick Garland had agreed not to make the special counsel's findings public while the Justice Department appealed a judge's dismissal of the case.

The abrupt action targeting career prosecutors who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s team is the latest sign of upheaval inside the Justice Department. It reflects the administration’s determination to purge the government of workers it perceives as disloyal to the president.