Cohen's firing came just 18 hours after Blanche released a memo that Cohen had helped him draft which announced that the task force he led would be playing a new leading role in combating illegal immigration, as part of an initiative dubbed "Operation Take Back America."
"It was a shock," Cohen wrote of his firing on LinkedIn, noting he had been meeting regularly with leadership to discuss violent crime initiatives.
"Putting bad guys in jail was as apolitical as it gets," he wrote. "My personal politics were never relevant. Not until yesterday."
Cohen's firing is one of the latest examples of the Trump administration removing or sidelining career Justice Department officials, who typically keep their positions across presidential administrations.