A Los Angeles-based federal prosecutor was reportedly fired Friday on instruction of the White House, with sources saying that it was likely due to his part in a case involving one of Trump’s top donors.
Citing several sources familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Los Angeles Times reports that prosecutor Adam Schleifer was fired Friday morning at around 11 a.m. via an email that read “on behalf of President Donald J. Trump.”
Carley Palmer, a former Los Angeles federal prosecutor, told the outlet that Schleifer received his termination from a “one line email and it came from a White House staff account.”
His former colleagues helped him pack up his office belongings swiftly after the email came through.
Sources also noted that Schleifer’s boss, acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Joseph T. McNally, was not involved with the decision.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The White House, in coordination with the Department of Justice, has dismissed more than 50 U.S. Attorney and Deputies in the past few weeks. The American people deserve a judicial branch full of honest arbiters of the law who want to protect democracy, not subvert it.”
The Times’ sources also said that they suspect Schleifer’s termination was caused in part by one case in particular: a probe of Andrew Wiederhorn, the former CEO of restaurant operator Fat Brands Inc. which owns fast-food chains like Fatburger and Johnny Rockets.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Wiederhorn was indicted by a grand jury last May on “federal charges alleging a scheme to conceal $47 million in distributions he received in the form of shareholder loans” from the IRS and other appropriate bodies. The former CEO pleaded not guilty.
Citing Federal Election Commission records, the Times reports that Wiederhorn donated “approximately $40,000” to the Republican National Committee and Trump political action committees since 2023.
Meanwhile, Schleifer has reportedly made several public remarks criticizing President Donald Trump. In one 2020 tweet, the prosecutor wrote: “It’s hard to imagine a President doing more to demoralize line prosecutors, law-enforcement partners, and faith in rule of law than he already has.”
Conservative influencer Laura Loomer even spotlighted Schleifer’s old tweets in an X post Friday, where she asked why a “Biden holdover” was “still working for the US Attorney’s office under the new Trump administration? He is a Trump hater.”
“Fire him. He supported the impeachment of President Trump and said he wanted to repeal Trump’s tax plan,” she continued. “We need to purge the US Attorney’s office of all leftist Trump haters.”
The president has been on a tear against the federal judiciary, criticizing judges and firing prosecutors left and right for what he claims is political bias and weaponization of the legal system.
In a February Truth Social post Trump slammed the Department of Justice and announced: “Over the past four years, the Department of Justice has been politicized like never before.
“Therefore, I have instructed the termination of ALL remaining ‘Biden Era’ U.S. Attorneys. We must ‘clean house’ IMMEDIATELY, and restore confidence. America’s Golden Age must have a fair Justice System - THAT BEGINS TODAY!”
