A government watchdog lawyer whose dismissal by President Trump has been stalled by the courts announced on Monday that his office would seek to pause the mass firings of some probationary federal workers.
The lawyer, Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that protects whistle-blowers, said his office had determined that the firings might violate the law.
In a statement posted to the agency’s website, Mr. Dellinger said that the decision to fire probationary employees en masse “without individualized cause” appeared “contrary to a reasonable reading of the law,” and that he would ask a government review board to pause the firings for 45 days.
The move marks an attempt by federal workers to use the levers of government to push back against the mass firings by the Trump administration, led by Elon Musk’s team. A spokesman for Mr. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Dellinger’s move, which was reported earlier by Government Executive, a trade publication, also highlights the many layers of government officials who have been targeted by the Trump administration. At every level of the case, the officials reviewing the firings have themselves been dismissed and are using other legal means to fight to hold on to their jobs.
The Office of Special Counsel, which was created in 1979, is not connected to the special counsels who are appointed by the Justice Department.
Mr. Dellinger himself was fired on Feb. 7. He sued, and a federal judge entered a temporary restraining order allowing him to keep his job until Feb. 26. The Supreme Court declined to intervene while his case continues to make its way through the courts.
Next, the case will be reviewed by an entity called the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent agency that reviews actions by the Office of Personnel Management. The three-member board includes appointees from both Republican and Democratic administrations.
It, too, has been under attack by the Trump administration. The chairwoman, Cathy Harris, a longtime employment lawyer, was confirmed by the Senate in 2022. She also sued, and Ms. Harris was recently reinstated as the chairwoman of the board after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to block her firing, at least for now.
Trump officials have moved to fire most of the estimated 200,000 federal workers on probation, mostly because they are new to government service.
Workers from multiple federal agencies filed complaints with Mr. Dellinger’s office, the first step in the process to contest their firings. Those filings argued that the Trump administration had violated federal personnel laws by firing probationary employees en masse.
Under federal personnel laws, probationary workers may be terminated after an individualized review only “if their performance or conduct demonstrates that they are unfit for federal employment,” according to the stay request. If federal agencies plan to lay off workers in a general restructuring or downsizing, they must follow relevant legal procedures, according to the filing.
Lawyers from Democracy Forward, the legal advocacy group that filed the complaint on behalf of the fired workers, celebrated Mr. Dellinger’s decision.
The Trump administration’s firing of the probationary federal workers was “illegal and cruel,” said Skye Perryman, the organization’s president and chief executive.
“It’s beyond troubling to think that we now have to protect the very people who serve this nation from attacks by the president,” she said.
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