White House says some employees were fired by mistake

The U.S. Department of Education let go dozens of "probationary employees" on Wednesday, according to two sources familiar with the firings. The letters were sent to roughly 40 employees on Wednesday evening, the sources said.

The news comes as President Donald Trump called the Education Department a "con job" that should be "closed immediately." The president has also directed Elon Musk to investigate the agency.

Gutting the department was one of Trump's signature campaign promises, and in recent weeks, he has prepared an executive order directing the education secretary to diminish the department and Congress to pass legislation to get rid of it.

Meanwhile, Musk's Department of Government Efficiency made sizable cuts to the agency earlier this week, slashing 89 critical independent research contracts at the department's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) worth nearly $900 million, according to a DOGE post on X and confirmed by a department spokesperson.

A handful of people working with Musk's DOGE were spotted at the Department of Education last week and some now have access to the agency's records and files, according to sources familiar. The DOGE workers are also in the department's email directory, meaning they were hired as ED employees. Dozens more ED employees are still on indefinite paid administrative leave for taking part in diversity trainings that occurred during Trump's first term.

The Education Department is the smallest cabinet-level agency with 4,400 employees. Another 1,400 employees work in the agency's office of Federal Student Aid.

-ABC News' Arthur Jones II

The White House sent letters to multiple Biden-appointed holdover U.S. attorneys informing them of their termination, sources familiar with the matter confirm to ABC News.

The emails were sent on Wednesday by the deputy director of the White House's office of presidential personnel, Sergio Gor, and informed the U.S. attorneys they were ousted "effective immediately."

The move doesn't come as a surprise given the broader shake-up by the administration of senior career officials at both the FBI and Department of Justice, who — in contrast — are not typically removed or reassigned from their posts across administrations. Removals of holdover U.S. attorneys, on the other hand, have become much more common in recent years.

In March of 2017, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions requested the resignations of more than 40 U.S. attorneys who had stayed in their posts from the Obama administration. And in February of 2021, dozens of holdover U.S. attorneys from the Trump Administration were asked to resign by the end of the month by the Biden Administration.

-ABC News' Alexander Mallin

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday evening replied to Attorney General Pam Bondi's claim that the Department of Justice was taking legal action against the State of New York over its alleged resistance to President Donald Trump's illegal immigration crackdown.

In the statement, Hochul said that Bondi "marched in front of the television cameras for a dramatic media briefing to announce she was filing charges against New York State related to our immigration laws" earlier that day. But it turned out to be "smoke and mirrors" because the DOJ was actually filing what Hochul called "a routine civil action about a law passed in 2019 that has been upheld by the courts time and again."

"Here are the facts: our current laws allow federal immigration officials to access any DMV database with a judicial warrant. That's a common-sense approach that most New Yorkers support. But there's no way I'm letting federal agents, or Elon Musk's shadowy DOGE operation, get unfettered access to the personal data of any New Yorker in the DMV system like 16-year-old kids learning to drive and other vulnerable people," the statement continued.

Calling the action a "worthless, publicity-driven lawsuit," Hochul predicted that it would be a "total failure."

"Let me be clear: New York is not backing down," she said.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous

President Donald Trump met with American Airlines CEO Robert Isom on Wednesday, marking their first in-person meeting since the airline was involved in a deadly collision with a military helicopter last month in Washington, D.C. The crash left 67 dead on Jan. 29.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was also present with Trump and Isom to discuss "ways to make investments in a state-of-the-art air traffic system that enhances aviation safety," according to a spokesperson for the airline.

In a statement provided to ABC News on Wednesday night, American Airlines said, "Robert thanked President Trump for his leadership and commitment to take bold action on investments in aviation safety. The American Airlines team will continue to work together with President Trump, Secretary Duffy, Congress and the entire aviation industry to make our systems even safer."

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders and Sam Sweeney