President Donald Trump’s effort to remove the head of a federal watchdog agency was “unlawful,” a federal judge in Washington, D.C., said Saturday.
The ruling sidelines Trump’s bid to remove Hampton Dellinger as the head of the Office of Special Counsel and is likely to set up a Supreme Court fight.
“The Special Counsel’s job is to look into and expose unethical or unlawful practices directed at federal civil servants, and to help ensure that whistleblowers who disclose fraud, waste, and abuse on the part of government agencies can do so without suffering reprisals,” Jackson wrote in her Saturday ruling. “It would be ironic, to say the least, and inimical to the ends furthered by the statute if the Special Counsel himself could be chilled in his work by fear of arbitrary or partisan removal.”
Trump fired Dellinger by email last month as his administration carried out widespread cuts to the federal workforce, including the terminations of nearly two dozen other government watchdogs.
Dellinger challenged the termination days later, arguing it violated federal law stating special counsels can only be removed by the president “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
“That email made no attempt to comply with the Special Counsel’s for-cause removal protection,” Dellinger’s lawsuit read. “It stated simply: ‘On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as Special Counsel of the US Office of Special Counsel is terminated, effective immediately.’”
Jackson issued a stay on Feb. 10 preventing Dellinger from being removed while his case proceeded and later issued a temporary restraining order that extended the hold for two weeks.
The Trump administration appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which declined to overturn the ruling on a 2-1 vote.
The Justice Department argued that the lower court’s decision limited Trump’s ability to manage the executive branch and that “preventing him from exercising these powers thus inflicts the gravest of injuries on the Executive Branch and the separation of powers.”
The DOJ petitioned the Supreme Court to affirm Trump’s right to fire Dellinger, arguing that any other decision would “irreparably harm the Presidency by curtailing the President’s ability to manage the Executive Branch in the earliest days of his Administration.”
The Supreme Court temporarily allowed Jackson’s decision to stand, keeping Dellinger in his position while the case played out in the lower courts.
As the head of the Office of Special Counsel, Dellinger is tasked with shielding federal employees from prohibited personnel practices, including retaliation for whistleblowing, in the workplace, the judge noted in the ruling. He told reporters last week that granting the president the ability to terminate his position without cause would impede his office from performing its duties.
“If I don’t have independence, if I can be removed for no good reason, federal employees are going to have no good reason to come to me,” Dellinger said on Wednesday.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment, but shortly after the judge’s ruling, the Trump administration filed a notice of appeal with the D.C. Circuit Court.
Dellinger took office in March 2024 after being appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term.
Lawrence Hurley contributed.
