diff --git a/ng-dev/release/publish/actions.ts b/ng-dev/release/publish/actions.ts
index ae6ef3c53..0d5f0b230 100644
--- a/ng-dev/release/publish/actions.ts
+++ b/ng-dev/release/publish/actions.ts
@@ -375,7 +375,6 @@ export abstract class ReleaseAction {
       return;
     }
 
-    const nodeModulesDir = join(this.projectDir, 'node_modules');
     // Note: We delete all contents of the `node_modules` first. This is necessary
     // because Yarn could preserve extraneous/outdated nested modules that will cause
     // unexpected build failures with the NodeJS Bazel `@npm` workspace generation.