Muhamad Yehia
A Trump administration lawyer boldly told a federal judge the courts had no authority in a case over a fired federal official who investigates whistleblower complaints in the civil service.
The Justice Department laid out an essentially unfettered power of the presidency over the position leading the federal Office of Special Counsel in an early test of Donald Trump’s ability to install whom he pleases in federal jobs — even when Congress and the courts have created some protections for that position.
The White House fired current special counsel Hampton Dellinger less than a month ago, and Dellinger sued.
The DOJ lawyer, Madeline McMahon, argued the court can’t let Dellinger stay in his job now. That would be an “unprecedented intrusion into the president’s authority.”
The case is moving faster than nearly any other challenge to Trump’s early executive decision — with the Justice Department already trying to push it to the Supreme Court almost immediately — perhaps even before Jackson can write an opinion.
“We’re in some other world here,” Jackson remarked. The Supreme Court appears to have set up a deadline for Jackson to rule today.
After the hearing, Dellinger told the press he would obey whatever the courts decide, and that he was headed back to work looking at claims from federal probationary workers who’ve been fired by Trump.
“I just didn’t feel like on my watch, that I could walk away based on an email from someone who doesn’t know me, doesn’t know my ..record,” Dellinger said after the hearing