A Tampa-based assistant U.S. attorney recently fired by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has received the support of U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon, a federal prosecutor since 2021, was dismissed last month, according to a statement from Castor and Gordon’s LinkedIn page. The Tampa Bay Times first reported his firing this week.
Castor, a Tampa Democrat, said she wrote a letter to Bondi “respectfully requesting” that Gordon be reinstated and raised concerns that his “abrupt removal” was “potential political retaliation” for Gordon’s work in prosecuting cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Castor wrote the firing was for “purely politically vindictive reasons” and “a deep stain of callous disregard for the U.S. Constitution and rule of law.”
In addition, Castor cited Gordon’s importance in leading the prosecution of Leo Govoni, a St. Petersburg man charged with stealing over $100 million from medical trust funds meant to help individuals with disabilities, injured workers and retirees across Florida.
“The victims deserve closure, and the public deserves a justice system free from intimidation and partisan retribution,” Castor wrote. “… Mr. Gordon’s removal places this case, and their hope for accountability, in jeopardy.”
The U.S. Attorneys Office announced June 23 that Govoni was indicted on 15 counts, including wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. According to the Times, a Department of Justice memo signed by Bondi and dated June 27 informed Gordon that he’d been removed.
Gordon had since updated his LinkedIn to list his title as “former federal prosecutor” with the Middle District of Florida. He listed his employment date as January 2017 to last month. From 2021 to 2023, he wrote that he was a senior trial counsel in the District of Columbia office.
“As Senior Trial Counsel for the Capitol Siege Section,” he wrote on his LinkedIn page, “I prosecuted some of the most notorious January 6 rioters, including Eric Munchel, the ‘zip tie guy’ who sought to take Congresspeople hostage; Richard Barnett, the man who put his feet on a desk in Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi’s office while carrying an electric shock weapon; and Ray Epps, the centerpiece of the right-wing conspiracy theory that the January 6 riot was a false flag operation intended to entrap peaceful Trump supporters.”
President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters have led to worries about actions being taken against attorneys involved in the prosecution of the more than 1,500 supporters who stormed the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify President Joe Biden’s victory. Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of them on his first day back in the White House.
In late June, the Associated Press cited unnamed sources in reporting Bondi fired at least three prosecutors involved in Jan. 6 cases.
The AP reported that two of the attorneys who worked as supervisors overseeing the Jan. 6 prosecutions in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, as well as a line attorney who prosecuted cases stemming from the Capitol attack.
