Axios broke the news on Saturday that 20 people had been sacked because of their previous work on cases relating to the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 and/or Trump’s handling of classified documents.

A senior ethics attorney responsible for advising the US attorney general and deputy attorney general on issues relating to federal employee ethics for 16 years wrote in a LinkedIn post that he was sacked on Friday.

The sackings have been linked to the work of the so-called “weaponisation working group” established by US attorney general Pam Bondi in February.

The group, which is being advised by a former accused insurrectionist, has been tasked with identifying “political” or “unethical prosecutions” under the Biden administration.