On February 26, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held a hearing on Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger’s challenge to the Trump administration efforts to fire him without cause. While a decision in the case was not issued, Judge Amy Berman Jackson seems poised to extend the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) she had previously issued, allowing Dellinger to continue in his role while the case proceeds.
Dellinger, who as the head of Office of Special Counsel (OSC) oversees the agency responsible for protecting federal employee whistleblowers and investigating their concerns, was terminated by the White House late on February 7. He sued to stop the firing, arguing that under the law, the Special Counsel “may be removed by the President only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” In its brief email alerting Dellinger to his firing, the White House did not cite any of these issues.
On February 12, Judge Jackson issued a TRO blocking the firing. “The effort by the White House to terminate the Special Counsel without identifying any cause plainly contravenes the statute,” wrote Judge Jackson in the order. “This language expresses Congress’s clear intent to ensure the independence of the Special Counsel and insulate his work from being buffeted by the winds of political change.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court have since both denied the administration’s attempts to appeal the initial temporary pause placed on Dellinger’s firing.
Following the hearing on the 26, Judge Jackson will keep the case ‘under advisement,’ and seems poised to extend the TRO that expires at the end of the day.
Whistleblower advocates have widely condemned the firing of Dellinger, arguing that it will undermine the entire system of whistleblower protections for federal employees.
National Whistleblower Center Chairman of the Board Stephen M. Kohn previously described the action as “irresponsible and dangerous” and warned that it “undermines a critical government program that has saved taxpayers billions of dollars and is designed to encourage reporting of waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.”
National Whistleblower Center has launched an emergency campaign in response to the
wrongful termination of Special Counsel Dellinger. They are urging supporters to join them and to contact their Representatives and Senators immediately and express their concern on the issue.
