Why I'm suing the Department of Justice

Our country's chief law enforcement agency is defying the very laws it is entrusted to uphold.

Yesterday, I filed a complaint against the Department of Justice in federal court. I am seeking to hold the Department accountable for unlawfully withholding information related to the reasons for my termination from federal service. I am also challenging my unjustified and unlawful firing in a separate proceeding before the Merit System Protection Board. I am one of many federal employees who have been abruptly and illegally fired by the Trump administration, and I am fighting back. (Subscribe and follow my Litigation page for the latest filings in both proceedings.)

Here’s a rundown on how DOJ is violating the law with illegal firings like mine and why it matters.

I was abruptly and illegally fired.

The afternoon of Friday, March 7—with no notice or explanation—I was delivered a memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that said this:

This memorandum serves as official notice that you are removed from your Senior Executive Service (SES) position of Pardon Attorney, Office of the Pardon Attorney, and from federal service, effective immediately. Pursuant to Article II of the Constitution and the laws of the United States, your employment with the Department of Justice is hereby terminated.

This is nonsense, and it’s against the law. While Blanche cites the “laws of the United States” as grounds for termination, the Department actually violated numerous federal laws by firing me in this manner. Longstanding federal law permits firing career executives like myself (“SES”) “only for misconduct, neglect of duty, malfeasance, or failure to accept a directed reassignment or to accompany a position in a transfer of function” (5 U.S.C. § 7543(a))—none of which apply in my case. Federal law also requires at least 30 days’ advance notice and an opportunity to contest the termination (5 U.S.C. § 7543(b))—neither of which I received.

And that’s all before we even get to the issue of whistleblower retaliation, which federal law clearly prohibits. I have explained elsewhere the events leading up to my termination, which trigger an array of protections under federal law, including the Whistleblower Protection Act (5 U.S.C. § 2302).

The DOJ has stonewalled and retaliated.

The Department has continued to violate the law (not to mention basic notions of human decency) in its conduct since my firing. It has stonewalled my requests for basic information pertaining to my firing, including documents to which I am legally entitled under the federal laws including the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act.

After my firing, I chose to speak up about the Department’s unlawful and abusive treatment. In response, Deputy Attorney General Blanche publicly accused me of lying about the circumstances of my termination, calling my decision to speak up “shameful.” When he learned that I intended to testify before Members of Congress about my experience, Blanche deployed armed officers to my home to deliver a late-night warning letter.

The shame, I would say, is on Blanche and his colleagues who are carrying out illegal and retaliatory firings of dedicated and highly qualified public servants. I suppose it is not surprising that Blanche has refused to offer any explanation for my firing, because there simply is none that could cast him or the Trump DOJ in a favorable light.

This is bigger than me and must be stopped.

Through illegal firings like mine, the Administration is (1) rooting out whistleblowers who threaten their political agenda by speaking the truth, (2) creating opportunities to stack the federal workforce with political loyalists who will blindly follow their agenda, and (3) displaying their contempt for public servants who have faithfully served this country in accordance with our laws and Constitution. All of these are sinister and illegitimate objectives, and at least the first two are illegal.

Case in point: Ed Martin. Two months after my firing, my former position (Pardon Attorney) has been filled by Ed Martin, a political appointee and ideological extremist who has none of the requisite qualifications. In fact, he is so extreme and unqualified that Senate Republicans tanked his nomination for the position of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Martin’s appointment is stunning because the Pardon Attorney has always been a nonpolitical appointee who undergoes rigorous vetting to be qualified as a member of the career Senior Executive Service. Martin has not gone through that process. Moreover, he is simultaneously serving as director of the Department’s new “Weaponization Working Group”—indicating an intent to thoroughly politicize an office that has always been nonpartisan.

The longstanding mission of the Department of Justice—as stated right on the landing page of its website—“is to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights.” The Department’s recent personnel practices run directly contrary to that mission in every respect. By firing career experts without cause or due process, the Department’s leadership is openly defying the laws it is entrusted to uphold, diminishing civil rights, and making our country less safe.

That is why I am standing up and fighting back. I hope others might do the same. I’ll post updates here, and I invite you to follow along.