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"President Trump's attempt to eliminate a crucial and long-standing source of impartial, nonpartisan oversight of his administration is contrary to the rule of law."
Eight of at least 17 inspectors general recently fired by U.S. President Donald Trump jointly filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday in hopes of returning to their roles as watchdogs "ensuring the effective and efficient operation" of government agencies.
Inspectors general (IGs) do their jobs "by auditing and investigating their agencies' operations and personnel in order to detect and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse, and by making recommendations for improved agency operations," explains the complaint, filed in the District of Columbia.
"Over the years," the document notes, "IGs' nonpartisan work has saved American taxpayers billions of dollars; helped safeguard U.S. national security; stopped fraud (and helped to both recover the fruits of such fraud and put fraudsters in prison); helped to end mistreatment of some of the nation's most vulnerable citizens; and ensured that veterans, farmers, senior citizens, disaster victims, and other Americans receive the support and services to which they are entitled by law."
The complaint argues that "the purported firings violated unambiguous federal statutes—each enacted by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed into law by the president—to protect inspector generals from precisely this sort of interference with the discharge of their critical, non-partisan oversight duties."
The plaintiffs are:
In addition to Trump, their complaint names as defendants the acting or Senate-confirmed leaders of each agency.
"President Trump is wrong to claim these actions were 'common' or 'standard.' To the contrary, since 1980, there has been a bipartisan consensus that it is improper for a new presidential administration to remove IGs en masse," the filing says. "President Trump's attempt to eliminate a crucial and long-standing source of impartial, nonpartisan oversight of his administration is contrary to the rule of law."
The fired federal workers are asking the district court to void their ousters, "so they remain the duly appointed IGs of their respective agencies, unless and until the president lawfully removes them" with a 30-day notice to Congress that details the reason for removal. In addition to getting their jobs back, they aim to block the named agency leaders, "or anyone working in concert with them, from impeding the lawful exercise of the duties of their offices."
Missal told multiple media outlets that their firings were "a clear violation of the law" and "the IGs are bringing this action for reinstatement so that they can go back to work fighting fraud, waste, and abuse on behalf of the American people."
The lawsuit came a day after nine civil society groups pressured the Senate to "act now to reaffirm its oversight role and demand full explanations from President Trump as to why each inspector general was removed, as mandated by law."
The IG firings are part of a broader effort by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, chair of the president's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to purge the federal workforce and slash spending.
As USA Todaynoted Wednesday:
The Justice Department and FBI told top officials who investigated Trump and the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, to resign or be fired.
Trump tried to fire the head of the Federal Elections Commission, but she refused to leave. Trump tried to fire the head of the Office of Government Ethics, but a federal judge temporarily reinstated Hampton Dellinger, who argued he was removed unlawfully, while the case is litigated.
Citing an unnamed source, the newspaper also reported that the White House on Tuesday night fired Paul K. Martin, inspector general at the U.S. Agency for International Development, after he "issued a
scathing report saying staff cuts and funding pauses at the agency put more than $489 million in food assistance around the world at risk of spoiling."
Their dismissals raise "significant concerns about maintaining the integrity and continuity of oversight," according to civil society groups.
Nine civil society groups are demanding that the Senate take action "to reaffirm its oversight role" in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's removal of at least 17 inspectors general at various federal agencies last month—a move that critics have called illegal.
Inspectors general are independent government watchdogs who are tasked with detecting and preventing waste, fraud, and abuse at federal agencies. They were installed as part of post-Watergate reforms.
The work of inspectors general is "especially important during times of presidential transition to ensure that agencies continue to operate effectively and serve the public," wrote the authors of the letter, which was addressed to the members of the U.S. Senate and dated Tuesday.
"The removal of multiple [inspectors general] at once raises significant concerns about maintaining the integrity and continuity of oversight. These abrupt dismissals undermine the ability of [inspectors general] to conduct thorough and impartial investigations, potentially deterring accountability at a critical time," they added.
The letter is signed by nine groups: American Oversight; Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington; Hispanic Leadership Fund; National Taxpayers Union; Project on Government Oversight; Public Citizen; R Street Institute; Taxpayers for Common Sense; and Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
"The Senate must demand answers," according to the groups, because federal law mandates that the president must give Congress 30 days advance notice of intent to remove an inspector general, along with the reason for the removal.
Hannibal Ware, chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, cast doubt on the legality of the firings in a January 24 letter sent to Sergio Gor, director of the Presidential Personnel Office, in response to the removals.
"I recommend that you reach out to White House counsel to discuss your intended course of action. At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed inspectors general," Ware wrote in the letter.
One of the inspectors general at the time described the removals as a "widespread massacre."
Viewed with hindsight, the firings of the inspectors general can be seen as an opening salvo in a string of high-profile, legally dubious removals that Trump has carried out over the past few weeks.
Trump recently dismissed a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board and "purportedly" removed the special counsel at the Office of Special Counsel, in both cases prompting lawsuits, among other removals.
Some senators, for their part, have already condemned Trump's removal of the inspectors general. Last week, over three dozen senators signed a letter to Trump saying that his actions violated removal protections and that they should be reinstated.
"Trump's outrageous attack on the DOJ and FBI is a clear and present danger to public safety, and a wrecking ball swinging at the rule of law," Rep. Jamie Raskin said.
The Trump Department of Justice made moves on Friday to fire FBI employees and prosecutors who were involved with the government's cases against U.S. President Donald Trump and the participants in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
First, on Thursday, several senior FBI officials—stationed both at headquarters and in the field—were told to either resign or be fired. Then, at 5 pm Eastern Time on Friday, dozens of DOJ prosecutors who worked on January 6 cases received an email saying they had been fired. Also on Friday, an email sent to FBI employees told them that acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who previously represented Trump in the cases against him, had requested a list of everyone who had worked on January 6 cases "to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary."
"Firing the FBI agents who investigated violent attacks against police officers on January 6 would set a dangerous precedent and make all of us less safe," Stand Up America executive director Christina Harvey said in a statement. "This is a shameless act of political retribution that weakens federal law enforcement and the rule of law."
"This is a massacre meant to chill our efforts to fight crime without fear or favor."
The FBI higher-ups forced out included the agency's six most senior executives as well as more than 20 directors of field offices including Washington, D.C., Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Seattle, and Las Vegas. The targeted officials had been promoted by former FBI Director Christopher Wray, according toThe New York Times. The Washington, D.C. field office worked extensively on Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigations into Trump's mishandling of classified documents and involvement in the January 6 insurrection, as well as the investigations of the rioters themselves, NBC News reported. One source toldThe Hill that agents who had worked on the cases were physically escorted out of the D.C. field office on Friday.
NBC reported that several of the senior officials had chosen to retire, even though they could have challenged their dismissals as nonpolitical appointees subject to civil service regulations.
Many of the agents received the ultimatum the same day that U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to head the FBI, Kash Patel, promised in his Senate confirmation hearing that he would not retaliate against any agents who worked on the Trump cases and was not aware of any attempts to do so.
"All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution," Patel told the Senate.
Trump, meanwhile, said on Friday that he was not aware of the firings, but added, "If they fired some people over there, that's a good thing, because they were very bad. They were very corrupt people, very corrupt, and they hurt our country very badly with the weaponization."
Another memo sent by Bove to acting FBI Director Brian J. Driscoll Jr. laid the groundwork for more firings, as Driscoll was asked to submit a list of all agents and employees "assigned at any time to investigations and/or prosecutions" related to January 6, as The New York Times reported. Field offices received a similar request from the FBI's counterterrorism division. Bove also asked for a list of agents who worked on a case against Hamas leadership, though it is not clear why.
One employee toldCNN that the January 6 case was the largest case the bureau had ever worked on, observing that "everyone touched that case."
In an email to staff on Friday reported by NBC, Driscoll noted, "We understand that this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts," adding, "I am one of those employees."
"This is a massacre meant to chill our efforts to fight crime without fear or favor," another anonymous agent told CNN. "Even for those not fired, it sends the message that the bureau is no longer independent."
The FBI Agents Association, which represents over 14,000 active and former agents, issued a scathing statement on Friday.
"If true, these outrageous actions by acting officials are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump and his support for FBI Agents," the association said. "Dismissing potentially hundreds of agents would severely weaken the bureau's ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the bureau and its new leadership for failure. These actions also contradict the commitments that Attorney General-nominee Pam Bondi and Director-nominee Kash Patel made during their nomination hearings before the United States Senate."
The group added that Patel had promised association members in a meeting that "agents would be afforded appropriate process and review and not face retribution based solely on the cases to which they were assigned."
Finally on Friday, DOJ prosecutors received an email from Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, telling them they were being fired and including a memo from Bove. The fired prosecutors had been hired to work on the January 6 cases and were made permanent by the Biden administration following the November election. In his memo, Bove suggested the prosecutors had been made permanent in an inappropriate attempt to protect them from being fired.
"I will not tolerate subversive personnel actions by the previous administration at any U.S. Attorney's Office," Bove wrote, as POLITICO reported. "Too much is at stake. In light of the foregoing, the appropriate course is to terminate these employees."
One of the impacted prosecutors told POLITICO that 25 to 30 people were let go.
"This attack on the Justice Department and particularly on the FBI is the beginning of America's first true era of dictatorship."
The latest round of DOJ firings comes days after the Trump administration already fired a dozen lawyers who had helped bring Smith's two cases against Trump. They also come a week after Trump's firing of 12 inspectors general. Trump also pardoned all approximately 1,500 people involved in the January 6 insurrection on his first day in office.
News of the FBI and DOJ firings sparked ire from Democratic lawmakers.
"Trump's outrageous attack on the DOJ and FBI is a clear and present danger to public safety, and a wrecking ball swinging at the rule of law," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, in a statement. "Trump wants to send the message to the police and federal officers that the law doesn't apply to Trump and his enablers. It's also part of his campaign to replace nonpartisan career civil servants with political loyalists and incompetent sycophants. Trump's moves have already left the Justice Department and the FBI rudderless and adrift by ousting their career senior ranks. Now, these unprecedented purges of hundreds of prosecutors, staff, and experienced law enforcement agents will undermine the government's power to protect our country against national security, cyber, and criminal threats."
"The loyal friend of autocrats, kleptocrats, oligarchs, and broligarchs, Trump doesn't care about the requirements of democracy, national security, and public safety," Raskin continued. "His agenda is vengeance and retribution. If allowed to proceed, Trump's purge of our federal law enforcement workforce will expose America to authoritarianism and dictatorship."
Sen. Dick Durbin, (D-Ill.), who serves on the Judiciary Committee, called the firings "a major blow to the FBI and Justice Department's integrity and effectiveness."
"This is a brazen assault on the rule of law that also severely undermines our national security and public safety," Durbin continued. "Unelected Trump lackeys are carrying out widespread political retribution against our nation's career law enforcement officials. President Trump would rather have the FBI and DOJ full of blind admirers and loyalists than experienced law enforcement officers."
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) also decried the firings and cast doubt on the integrity of Bondi and Patel, whom Trump had tapped to lead the DOJ and FBI respectively.
"Pam Bondi and Kash Patel both committed to protecting the Department of Justice and the FBI from politics and weaponization. If these reports are true, it's clear they misled the Senate," Himes said. "As ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, I have repeatedly asked the FBI for more information about these reports and will insist on answers."
Fellow Connecticut Democrat Rep. Rosa DeLauro wrote on social media: "Priority #1 for the Trump administration: Protect the lawless and purge those who uphold the law. The firing of FBI agents and federal prosecutors without cause is an assault on the rule of law and law enforcement. It leaves Americans vulnerable and less safe. We will push back."
As Democrats promised action, Harvey of Stand Up America also called on Republican lawmakers to respond.
"This is not about public safety—it's about revenge and control," Harvey said. "Removing experienced law enforcement professionals and replacing them with political loyalists puts all of our safety at risk. If there are any Republican senators left who care about protecting the rule of law and public safety, they should oppose this dangerous purge and reject Kash Patel's nomination as FBI Director."
Progressive political commenter Thom Hartmann urged U.S. citizens to call their representatives.
"Let's just call these mass firings at Justice and the FBI what they are. Donald Trump is a lawless man who is ripping apart the FBI to turn it into a banana republic-style group of enforcing thugs who will only do his will," Hartmann wrote on his Substack Saturday morning. "They will spare his friends and persecute his enemies. We've seen this over and over during the past century in countries all over the world; it's nothing new. It's just that we never expected to see it here in America."
"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin dreamed for most of his life of destroying America; he now has a friend who is doing it for him. This attack on the Justice Department and particularly on the FBI is the beginning of America's first true era of dictatorship. The only question now is how long and how far Democratic and Republican politicians and career government employees will tolerate this, and, when their resistance comes, whether it will be too late. The phone number for Congress is 202-224-3121."