March 2 (UPI) -- A federal judge ruled Saturday that President Donald Trump's administration had unlawfully fired the head of a federal watchdog agency and blocked his removal from the office, court documents show.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted a summary judgment and permanent injunction to Hampton Dellinger, the Special Counsel of the Office of the Special Counsel, in a lawsuit he filed against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others.
The lawsuit stems from an email sent to Dellinger on February 7 by Sergio Gor, the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, who is also named in the lawsuit.
"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. Thank you for your service," Gor wrote in the email.
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The Office of Special Counsel protects federal employees from whistleblower retaliation and political coercion, investigates misconduct, and enforces the Hatch Act. Its head is appointed by presidents to five-year terms.
This independence is crucial because OSC holds the government accountable, exposing fraud, waste, and abuse while shielding those who report it. Without it, whistleblowers risk punishment, and misconduct could go unchecked, eroding public trust in federal agencies.
Jackson called the email an "unlawful" act in violation of the federal law establishing the office, which guarantees Dellinger to a five-year term. The judge defended her reasoning in a 67-page memorandum of opinion.
"There is no dispute that the statute establishing the Office of Special Counsel provides that the Special Counsel may be removed by the President only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office, and that the curt email from the White House informing the Special Counsel that he was terminated contained no reasons whatsoever," Jackson wrote.
Jackson vehemently defended the importance of protecting the independence of the Office of the Special Counsel, rejected the government's argument of presidential power and the assertion by the defendants that "the public would be better served by the appointment of a principal officer who holds the president's confidence."
"There has been no indication here that plaintiff has been acting in a partisan or biased manner," Jackson wrote.
"To the contrary, for example, his recent finding vindicating complaints by IRS agents that were retaliated against for raising concerns about the treatment of Hunter Biden during President Biden's administration spurred Senators Charles Grassley and Ron Johnson to implore President Trump to protect those individuals."
Still, the Trump administration immediately moved to appeal Jackson's ruling to United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, court documents show, in a move that will likely send the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Trump administration shot back to the court that Jackson's order that Dellinger's title and position be recognized and allowed to carry out his duties without obstruction amount to an "extraordinary intrusion into the president's authority." The defendants have requested a stay of the lower court's ruling, pending the appeal.
