US Attorney General Pam Bondi has dismissed a Justice Department official after they made a lewd gesture towards National Guard personnel stationed in Washington DC while on their way to work. The dismissed employee, Elizabeth Baxter, was a paralegal in the department’s environmental defense section, as reported initially by the New York Post.
Bondi’s memo to Baxter, which was published, stated that due to her “inappropriate behavior towards National Guard service members,” Baxter’s employment with the Department of Justice has been terminated, and she is removed from federal service immediately. DoJ spokespersons Chad Gilmartin and Gates McGRvick confirmed the firing through social media posts.
Reuters attempted to contact Baxter for comments but was unable to do so. According to the New York Post, Baxter had raised her middle finger and used crude language toward the National Guard members on August 18 and later denounced the troops.
Additionally, Donald Trump has recently deployed hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington DC, declaring a crime emergency and a temporary federal oversight of the city’s police department. Despite the president characterizing the US capital as a city besieged by crime—claims contradicted by Justice Department data indicating that violent crime in Washington, a federal district with self-governance overseen by Congress, reached a 30-year low last year—the US government has also boosted street patrols by deploying agents from multiple agencies, including the FBI.
Following legal action from the city’s attorney general, the Trump administration struck a deal with Washington’s Democratic Mayor, Muriel Bowser, agreeing to retain the police chief, Pamela Smith, in charge of the department’s operations.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/30/bondi-fires-justice-department-employee-for-making-vulgar-gesture-at-national-guard
