Three former DOJ officials sue to challenge their Trump-era firings
The plaintiffs in Thursday's suit include Michael Gordon, a longtime federal prosecutor who also handled January 6 cases. He was fired last month while handling a high-level fraud case against a Florida man accused of fleecing children with special needs out of millions of dollars. The lawsuit says the firing "came as a particular shock" to Gordon because he was picked to help lead that case, and he was "personally congratulated" by officials.
Also joining the suit: Joseph Tirrell, the department's former top ethics official, and Patty Hartman, a public affairs specialist who oversaw press releases about Jan. 6 cases and helped maintain the content of an online Justice Department database on Capital siege cases.
In their lawsuit, the three officials say they were told of their firings in one-page memos signed by Bondi that didn't offer any specific reason for the termination. The memos cited Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which lays out the powers of the president.
The suit argues Bondi and the Justice Department did not follow the normal procedures that govern how and when civil servants can be fired. They ask a judge to order the Trump administration to "immediately reinstate" them as Justice Department employees, and award back pay as needed.
"The Attorney General does not have absolute authority to simply remove DOJ employees. Specifically, there are crucial guardrails that protect employees from arbitrary or unlawful termination," the lawsuit reads.
On Tirell's termination, the suit also says he is owed protections as a member of the Senior Executive Service — a category of senior-level government employees who aren't appointed by the president — and as a Navy veteran.
"Specifically, it is a Prohibited Personnel Practice to 'knowingly take, recommend, or approve any personnel action if the taking of such action would violate a veterans' preference requirement,'" the suit read, referring to federal rules that give former members of the military certain preferences in government jobs.
Normally, the suit says, the plaintiffs would be able to go to a federal agency called the Merit Systems Protection Board to appeal their firings. But the MSPB has been hobbled by President Trump's decision to fire a board member, making any filing there "futile," the plaintiffs say.
Dozens of Justice Department staffers have been fired, CBS News has previously reported. The firings include prosecutors and officials who worked on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, as well as people linked to the criminal investigations into Mr. Trump.
Within weeks of Mr. Trump's inauguration, top officials directed the FBI to put together a list of agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases — a sweeping dragnet since the Capitol riot investigation was the largest in Justice Department history, ensnaring over 1,000 defendants. Meanwhile, Bondi set up a "weaponization working group" tasked with reviewing the two federal criminal prosecutions of Mr. Trump.
After her firing, Hartman blasted the Justice Department in an interview with CBS News.
"There used to be a line, used to be a very distinct separation between the White House and the Department of Justice, because one should not interfere with the work of the other," Hartman told CBS News. "That line is very definitely gone."
CBS News has reached out to the Justice Department for comment on the lawsuit.
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