WASHINGTON — The head of the agency charged with enforcing whistleblower protections sued the Trump administration Monday, saying he was unlawfully fired last week amid an ongoing purge in the federal government.
Hampton Dellinger was nominated by President Joe Biden in 2023 and confirmed by the Senate last year to lead the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). The office was established by Congress in 1989 as an independent agency charged with overseeing enforcement of the Whistleblower Protection Act and, later, the Hatch Act – a federal law that prohibits civil service employees in the executive branch from engaging in certain political activities, including taking active parts in campaigns. The OSC has no relationship to the special counsels appointed by the attorney general to conduct investigations for the Justice Department.
Under federal law, the special counsel serves for a five-year term and may be removed early by the president “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
On Friday night, according to Dellinger’s lawsuit, President Donald Trump disregarded that and informed him he was fired in a one-sentence email.
“That email made no attempt to comply with the Special Counsel’s for-cause removal protection,” the lawsuit says. “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.’”
Dellinger’s...
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