Watchdog Seeks To Halt More Than 5,000 Trump Administration Firings At Usda

A federal watchdog for government workers is trying to force the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary employees who were recently fired from the Department of Agriculture.

That watchdog, Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, is simultaneously fighting in court to hang on to his own job after President Donald Trump attempted to fire him. And Dellinger’s petition on behalf of the fired USDA workers is now before yet another bureaucrat whom Trump is trying to remove from office: Cathy Harris, who heads a government board on workplace grievances.

The developments showcase two prongs of Trump’s plan to radically shrink the federal workforce: mass terminations of rank-and-file government employees, and targeted firings of the officials who lead agencies that are supposed to investigate and adjudicate complaints from those workers.

Trump’s opponents say both prongs of the strategy run afoul of the law.

Dellinger expands bid to protect fired workers

Dellinger argued in his petition filed Friday with the Merit Systems Protection Board that the USDA’s firings of more than 5,000 probationary employees violate civil-service protections. He asked the board to issue an order that would reverse the firings for 45 days.

“In most cases, probationary employees may only be terminated if their specific, individual performance or conduct demonstrates that they are unfit for federal employment,” Dellinger said in a statement Tuesday.

But the Trump administration, he said, did not assess the performance of the workers it fired; rather, it terminated them en masse because it concluded that their positions were not “mission-critical.”

Dellinger also alleged that USDA falsely told the fired workers that their dismissal was “based on your performance” when that was not the case.

Dellinger heads the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency in the executive branch that investigates whistleblower reports and protects federal workers from illegal employment practices.

Spokespeople for the Agriculture Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, Dellinger won a temporary order from the merit systems board blocking the Trump administration’s dismissal of six probationary workers from various agencies. Another order issued Monday by Harris revealed that Dellinger has dramatically expanded his effort on behalf of fired workers. He is now seeking a ruling from the board that would effectively require the USDA to rehire all the department’s fired probationary workers for the next month and a half while Dellinger’s investigation continues.

Dellinger’s office described its investigation as a probe into “systemic merit systems abuses.”

The merit systems board was established in 1979 to protect the federal workforce from political retaliation and hear appeals from federal employees who believe they were wrongfully terminated.

Two key officials also battle to keep their jobs

The expanding battle over the Trump administration’s mass firing of probationary workers now involves two key players who are themselves fighting to hold on to their jobs: Dellinger, the special counsel, and Harris, who chairs the merit systems board.

Both are Senate-confirmed appointees of President Joe Biden whom Trump has tried to fire. Both have filed lawsuits claiming their dismissals were illegal because of federal laws that say they can be fired only for cause, such as misconduct or neglect of their duties.

The Trump administration has already gone to the Supreme Court to try to force Dellinger out of his post. The justices initially punted on that request, and Dellinger’s lawsuit is currently back before a lower court, though it seems likely to head back up to the Supreme Court on an emergency appeal soon.

Harris’ fight to retain her job could also reach the justices soon. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras issued an injunction ordering that Harris be permitted to remain in her post.

Both Dellinger and Harris have urged the courts to uphold Congress’ power to insulate the leaders of independent agencies from politically motivated removal. The Justice Department has countered that Trump should have the ability to control the entire executive branch.

And the Justice Department has seized on Dellinger’s assertive moves against the Trump administration’s firing spree. Those moves, the department says, show that he is acting as a partisan and making decisions in tension with the new president’s agenda.

“Plaintiff has aggressively wielded OSC’s executive powers during this litigation,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a filing Monday with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, referring to Dellinger’s agency, the Office of Special Counsel. That office is unrelated to the special counsels that DOJ sometimes appoints to handle politically sensitive criminal probes.