Bondi fires prosecutor in Miami as part of purges tied to Jan. 6 Trump case
Last year, Watson received another Justice Department award for 'exceptional service' disrupting a ransomware group that threatened to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from computer networks worldwide.
But on Friday, Garland's successor, Pam Bondi, fired Watson in a terse email to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami — providing no reason, according to multiple sources familiar with her termination.
Watson, 46, who as deputy criminal chief was serving in one of the office's senior positions, became another casualty in President Donald Trump's mission to purge anyone found to have worked in some way for special counsel Jack Smith. Smith led the prosecution of Trump for his alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters trying to stop Congress' certification of the 2020 presidential election. Trump lost to former President Joe Biden in the election.
Watson was among about a dozen Justice Department employees, including a few federal prosecutors, who were terminated by Bondi on Friday — the latest wave of firings in the agency since Trump started his second term as president in January.
According to sources, Watson temporarily worked on the special counsel's team, which recruited her to evaluate financial information related to the Jan. 6 case. The sources said Watson found no incriminating information that was used to prosecute Trump or the various right-wing, white supremacist groups and individuals who rallied to hear the president speak that day on the Ellipse in Washington.
That was the extent of her involvement in the special counsel's investigation, which led to more than 1,500 people being charged and most convicted of trespassing, vandalism, assault or seditious conspiracy. Upon taking office, Trump pardoned them or commuted their sentences.
'Ironically, she's being punished for finding exculpatory evidence,' said a former colleague, who did not want to be identified. 'It's a shame. She's a terrific person and a really smart lawyer.'
The Justice Department declined to comment about Watson's termination, which took effect immediately on Friday. In her email to Watson, Bondi said she was dismissed under the president's constitutional authority. But she also said Watson could appeal her termination.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida did not respond to a Miami Herald inquiry about Watson's dismissal.
Veteran federal prosecutor in Miami
Watson, who grew up in Massachusetts, graduated from Brown University and Northeastern University School of Law. She passed the bar in Massachusetts in 2006. She went on to work at the 250-lawyer U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami for more than a decade.
Court records show she prosecuted hundreds of federal cases, including fraud, economic and cyber crimes. Her last position was as the deputy criminal chief, among the office's most significant jobs.
Watson is the latest federal prosecutor in the Miami office to be fired for playing a role in the special counsel's Jan. 6 investigation or his classified documents probe of Trump, a case that was filed in South Florida.
In late January, Miami federal prosecutor Michael Thakur, a Harvard Law School graduate who worked on the documents case accusing Trump of withholding top secret materials at his Palm Beach estate, was fired along with dozens of others in the Justice Department who were members of the special counsel's team.
In addition to Thakur, Anne McNamara, a former federal prosecutor in the Miami office before joining Smith's team in Washington, was also terminated.
The Justice Department's rolling purges of lawyers and employees who participated in the two federal criminal cases against Trump — which Smith dismissed after Trump won the 2024 presidential election — are expected to continue in Washington and other regions of the country, including Miami.
Since Trump started his second term, the U.S. Attorney's Office has undergone a 'brain drain,' losing not only Thakur and Watson to firings but also many other veteran prosecutors to retirement or career opportunities. Among them: Joan Silverstein, Bob Senior, Dan Bernstein, Kiran Bhat, Tom Watts-Fitzgerald, Jonathan Stratton, Tony Gonzalez, Ignacio Vazquez, Lisa Rubio, Dexter Lee, Jeff Kaplan and Paul Schwartz.
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