Maggie Haberman And Kaitlan Collins Agree Trump ‘Can’t Just Fire’ Probers From DOJ — But He Can ‘Make Their Life Hell’

CNN commentator and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and anchor Kaitlan Collins agreed that President-elect Donald Trump “can’t just fire” career DOJ investigators who worked on his cases — but he can “make their lives Hell.”

In October, a blockbuster filing from Special Counsel Jack Smith, which contained new evidence and bombshell revelations in the Jan. 6 case — dropped just a month before the election. The new filing was revised to deal with the Supreme Court’s sweeping immunity ruling.

But on Monday, Smith filed a motion to drop the charges, in line with the Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president, and Judge Tanya Chutkan granted the motion.

On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins wondered what the aftermath would look like — including for investigators who enjoy civil service protections:

COLLINS: But you know what’s not over is what happens after this. And this is what I’m really curious to watch, when Trump does retake office.

HABERMAN: Yes.

COLLINS: Because it’s how they handle this now, when they’re back in power.

Dan Scavino is one of Trump’s longest, most loyal aides. And he tweeted just a few moments ago about “Many people’s lives were destroyed over the past 4 years since we walked out of the White House.” He said, there was “A relentless barrage of knocks on the front door at home… subpoena, after subpoena, after subpoena.” Over the last four years, “I have lots of questions.”

HABERMAN: Well, and they all feel that way in Trump’s world. I mean, I think you have to remember that it is not just the January 6 investigation, which related to a lot of people who were in the White House, and we’ve obviously seen the fallout of that.

Then there’s the documents investigation in Florida, which related to a much smaller group of people actually, who were around Trump. But they all feel as if their lives were turned upside down, and they were, you know, they were hanging on in the hopes that he would win.

I mean, Trump was very clear with a number of people, back in 2023, when he got indicted, that, if he won, this would all go away. That’s obviously what happened.

No, the Manhattan case doesn’t magically go away that he was convicted in. But it’s — they’re not sentencing a sitting president. We’ve seen that get delayed indefinitely now. And the Georgia case is a real question mark for me.

He is articulating what they all feel. What that ends up looking like, Kaitlan, I don’t know, because there are civil service rules about the prosecutors who worked on these cases. And so, the question becomes, Trump can’t just fire them. He doesn’t have that magic power. But it is very clear that his team is talking about this.

COLLINS: Can they make their life hell, though?

HABERMAN: That’s what I was about to say. And they can make it so miserable that, in the hopes that they leave, that they just go off on their own. And then if anybody is left, then they’ll figure out what to do.

HONIG: Yes, I think we need to — I need to throw a red flag here on these — this kind of comments by Dan Scavino, and others, because we’re seeing it regularly, these threats, We’re going to prosecute the prosecutors, investigate the investigators.

HABERMAN: Yes, right.

HONIG: I mean, look, I have been critical of Jack Smith. I stand by all of my criticism of him. I think there were times he did things that are against DOJ principle. But if we’re talking about opening a criminal investigation, there is zero evidence to justify that.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.