Judge blocks Trump from firing head of US agency that investigates corruption

A judge blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to fire the head of a body that protects whistleblowers and investigates corruption.

Late on Wednesday Judge Amy Berman Jackson reversed the White House order sacking Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), and reinstated him in his post pending a court hearing set for 26 February.

It’s the latest legal roadblock in the president’s breakneck bid to decapitate almost every federal agency, with lawsuits piling up. On Wednesday eight inspectors general, who had been summarily dismissed in mass firings without Congress being given the statutory 30 days notice, filed a lawsuit asking for their sackings to be ruled illegal and for them to restored to their positions.

But Dellinger’s case appears set to test the legal limits of Trump’s ability to dismiss public officials. Dellinger was informed of his firing last week in a one-sentence email that did not specify the cause.

A 1978 act of Congress creating Dellinger’s position specifies that “the special counsel may be removed by the president only for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office”.

In her ruling, Jackson wrote: “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 Office of Special Counsel is distinct from the role of Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed in 2022 to spearhead a criminal investigation into Trump over attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the retention of classified documents.

Its mission includes safeguarding the merit system among civil servants and enforcing the Hatch Act, which governs the partisan political activities of government workers. Trump and his supporters have made clear that they favour replacing supposedly impartial civil servants with partisan loyalists.

It is also charged with providing a channel for whistleblowers to disclose corruption and wrongdoing without suffering reprisals.

Trump’s attempt to remove its director brazenly contradicts his claim to be crusading against supposed rampant government corruption. He and his richest supporter, the multi-billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, have been scouring federal agencies for massive spending cuts, claiming to find billions of dollars of corrupt government spending but without providing evidence.

Dellinger was confirmed in his post for a five-year term by the Senate last March after being nominated by Joe Biden.

He argued that his sacking is illegal. “Since my arrival at OSC last year, I could not be more proud of all we have accomplished,” Dellinger said.

“The agency’s work has earned praise from advocates for whistleblowers, veterans and others. The effort to remove me has no factual nor legal basis – none – which means it is illegal.”

The Trump administration did not contest that it had fired Dellinger without cause, but argued that the congressional law requiring a cause was unconstitutional.

Congress’s power to protect the heads of independent agencies from being fired by a president was established by a 1935 supreme court ruling, one that conservative Trump supporters have called on the court to overturn – and which some rightwing justices have indicated they are willing to do.

Such a move would depart from long-established precedent, according to constitutional experts.

“The supreme court has repeatedly supported the creation of independent agencies that exist in the executive branch, to be sure, but are insulated from direct presidential control,” said Bruce Ackerman, a law professor at Yale University. “And in particular, the president can’t fire people or members of these commissions.”

A spate of other agency heads have been summarily fired, many of them resulting in legal challenges.

Days after Dellinger’s sacking, the White House announced that it had removed the head of the Office of Government Ethics, David Huitema, who was also confirmed for a five-year term last year.

Another Biden appointee, Gwynne Wilcox, sued last week after being dismissed from the National Labor Relations Board last month.