FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Over the weekend, The New York Times reported on the surprise firing of Michele Beckwith, a career prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
Her dismissal in July reportedly came six hours after she pushed back on a planned Border Patrol Operation near Sacramento.
The Times reported on a conversation Beckwith said she had with Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, in which she told him via phone that a court order would prevent him from arresting anyone without probable cause.
It was a federal judge in Fresno who issued that order in April, which applies from Bakersfield to the Oregon border.
Beckwith told the Times she then followed up with Bovino the next morning, writing in an email that she expected “compliance with court orders and the Constitution.”
Later that same day, she told The Times that her work cellphone and computer had become disabled. Beckwith says an email to her personal account stated she was terminated on behalf of the president.
She told The Times she “was promptly marched out of the office.”
The background behind the July firing, reported for the first time last Friday, follows other high-profile dismissals at the Department of Justice by President Trump.
Just over a week ago, Virginia prosecutor Erik Siebert resigned. ABC reported it followed pressure from the president after Siebert failed to charge Leticia James and James Comey, figures viewed as opponents of the President.
President Trump quickly took ownership online, writing, Siebert, “Didn’t quit. I fired him.”
The Times reports that two days after Beckwith’s dismissal, and under a new head prosecutor, Bovino took to X, posting that operations were underway in Sacramento.
Action News reached out to Beckwith, and she replied that she is not making any further statements at this time. She told The New York Times she is now appealing her firing, and said she is motivated by justice, not politics.
