The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, has fired a justice department official for making a vulgar gesture to members of the National Guard deployed in Washington DC on her way to work.
The employee, Elizabeth Baxter, was a paralegal at the department’s environmental defense section, according to a memo to her published by the New York Post, which first reported Friday’s dismissal.
“Based on your inappropriate conduct towards National Guard service members, your employment with the Department of Justice is hereby terminated, and you are removed from federal service effective immediately,” Bondi wrote in the memo.
DoJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin shared the story on X and confirmed the reporting. Another spokesperson, Gates McGarvick, also reposted it, writing: “Very simple: if you don’t support law enforcement, @AGPamBondi’s DOJ might not be a good fit.”
Reuters could not immediately contact Baxter, who the New York Post said had raised her middle finger and uttered vulgarities at National Guard members on 18 August and later disparaged the troops.
Donald Trump deployed hundreds of National Guard members to the streets of Washington this month, declaring a crime emergency and announcing a temporary federal takeover of the city’s police department.
In June, the Republican president ordered Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles and has threatened to send troops and federal officials to Chicago against the wishes of Democratic governors of California and Illinois.
Trump has portrayed the US capital as a city awash in crime, although justice department data shows violent crime hit a 30-year low last year in Washington, a self-governing federal district under the jurisdiction of Congress.
The US government also dispatched agents from numerous agencies, including the FBI, to patrol the capital’s streets.
Following a legal challenge filed by the city’s attorney general, the Trump administration negotiated a deal with the Democratic mayor, Muriel Bowser, to keep the police chief, Pamela Smith, in charge of the department’s operations.
