After mass terminations at DOJ, former top ethics official is 1 of 3 plaintiffs suing the agency
Updated: Three former Justice Department officials, including a longtime federal prosecutor who handled cases against the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol rioters, filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Donald Trump’s administration for failing to follow the administrative guardrails protecting employees from arbitrary or unlawful termination.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, comes after a wave of departures, including mass terminations, from the Justice Department since Trump returned to the White House in January. The White House and the Justice Department have been accused of targeting and firing Justice Department employees in a political retribution spree.
Michael M. Gordon, Patricia A. Hartman and Joseph W. Tirrell filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Cout for the District of Columbia. Gordon was an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted cases relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Hartman was a public affairs specialist who handled media inquiries and press releases about the prosecution of those cases. Tirrell, a military veteran, was the department’s top ethics official.
The lawsuit alleges that all three officials were told that they were fired in one-page memos signed by Bondi with no explanation as to why they were being terminated. The lawyers representing the three officials include Heidi Burakiewicz, Norman Eisen, Abbe David Lowell and Mark Zaid.
“This unprecedented litigation not only seeks to protect career Justice Department personnel who have done nothing but performed their jobs but also will fully challenge the notion that the presidency is akin to being a king,” Zaid says.
Bondi and the Justice Department failed to follow “long-standing statutory and regulatory protections” that dictate how and when the employment of civil servants can be terminated, the suit alleges.
Gordon, Hartman and Tirrell ask for a judge to order the Justice Department to immediately reinstate them and award them back pay. The lawsuit cites the Administrative Procedure Act, the Declaratory Judgment Act and the Fifth Amendment. In addition, the lawsuit says that fired employees would normally be able to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, but the quasi-judicial agency that adjudicates conflicts between civil servants and agencies has been stymied by Trump’s decision to fire a board member. The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Justice Connection, a network of DOJ alum created to support current employees, estimates that more than 200 DOJ employees have been fired.
Updated July 25 at 2:50 p.m. to add Mark Zaid’s quote.
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