WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency that seeks to protect whistleblowers, sued President Donald Trump on Monday, saying he was illegally fired as part of the president’s massive overhaul of the government.
Hampton Dellinger was informed of his firing in an email Friday evening from the White House personnel director, who said he was writing on behalf of the president. His termination comes as Trump’s Republican administration is testing the limits of well-established civil service protections by moving to dismantle federal agencies and push out staffers
Dellinger notes in his lawsuit, filed in Washington federal court, that special counsels can be removed by the president “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
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“President Trump’s purported removal of Special Counsel Dellinger is unlawful,” the lawsuit says. “It has no basis in fact and thus cannot be squared with the statutory text. And it is in direct conflict with nearly a century of precedent that defines the standard for removal of independent agency officials and upholds the legality of virtually identical for-cause removal protections for the heads of independent agencies.”
The Office of Special Counsel is responsible for enforcing multiple laws related to federal employees, including the Hatch Act, which restricts the partisan political activities of government workers. It’s an independent agency separate and apart from Justice Department special counsels who are appointed by the attorney general for specific investigations, like Jack Smith.
