Three former Justice Department employees who were fired as part of the Trump administration’s politicization of the agency have pushed back in a new lawsuit, arguing that they were dismissed unlawfully and in violation of normal civil service protections.
The three individuals, including a federal attorney who earned regular distinctions for his work prosecuting rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, contended that the Trump administration disregarded the standard protections for civil servants that prohibit arbitrary firings.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Washington, is predicated on the paralysis at the Merit Systems Protection Board. The board typically adjudicates claims of improper firings and has the power to reinstate improperly fired workers. But President Trump fired its head, Cathy Harris, a Democrat, in February, leaving the traditionally bipartisan board without a quorum and effectively paralyzing the only venue where civil servants can fight on their own behalf.
“In a normal course of proceedings, plaintiffs would be able to seek recourse through the Merit Systems Protection Board,” the lawsuit says. “But because of the government’s own actions, any complaint filed before the M.S.P.B. will be futile.”
Under federal statute, fired workers have the right to appeal their firings to the board, and then to a federal appeals court.
“However, due to the government’s own actions to stymie the board, the M.S.P.B. currently cannot function as intended,” the complaint states.
In their 22-page complaint, the three individuals — Michael Gordon, Patricia Hartman and Joseph W. Tirrell — documented what were, up until their firings, successful careers.
Just two days before his termination, Mr. Gordon, a prosecutor who secured over 100 convictions in cases stemming from the riot at the Capitol, received a rating of “outstanding” on a midyear performance review.
His pivot to working on Jan. 6 prosecutions came toward the end of an eight-and-a-half-year stint in the Justice Department, the complaint said. His work spanned a number of high-profile cases in connection with the attack on the Capitol, including the prosecutions of Richard Barnett, who was photographed posing at then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk, and Ray Epps, who was caught on camera urging people to march into the Capitol.
Ms. Hartman, a longtime spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office who had also worked within the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration, and Mr. Tirrell, the attorney general’s own ethics adviser, were also noted for “exemplary” service with no disciplinary history.
In each case, the letters they received in June and July informing them that they had been fired noted that they could appeal their cases to the M.S.P.B.
By that time, though, the Supreme Court had already allowed the president to remove Ms. Harris, in a decision in May, leaving it without a quorum necessary to function, as required by law.
Seizing on that, lawyers representing the former officials are using the paralysis at the M.S.P.B. as a new strategy that is also being applied in cases involving other agencies.
The former chief operating officer of the Federal Emergency Management Agency filed a lawsuit on similar grounds on Thursday.
Zach Montague is a Times reporter covering the federal courts, including the legal disputes over the Trump administration’s agenda.
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