The acting head of the government’s human resources arm, Charles Ezell, will no longer testify on Thursday in a case challenging the legality of the recent mass firings of federal workers, lawyers for the Trump administration said.
The move could pave the way for a federal judge to order the government to pause the firings.
Mr. Ezell had been ordered to appear before a San Francisco judge as part of a lawsuit brought against the Office of Personnel Management by unions representing some of the fired workers.
As the office’s acting chief, Mr. Ezell began issuing guidance in January that agencies interpreted as orders to fire federal employees, particularly those with probationary status. That guidance is at the heart of multiple legal challenges, with the once-obscure agency assuming a lead role in President Trump’s government-gutting initiative.
According to a legal complaint from the employee unions, Mr. Ezell held a meeting on Feb. 13 with the heads of many federal agencies in which he ordered them to fire tens of thousands of employees. The next day, O.P.M. provided a template to agencies to use for the termination letters, stating that employees were being fired for performance reasons, according to the plaintiffs.
The unions argued that O.P.M. does not have the authority to make such personnel decisions and asked the court to rule that the office’s orders were illegal and force the government to stop firing people at their direction.
Mr. Ezell filed a declaration on Feb. 26 asserting that he did not order the agencies to fire anyone, and that the memos from his office were intended only as “guidance.” The same day, lawyers for the unions filed examples of correspondence from O.P.M. that they argue show that the memos were indeed orders.
A day later, the judge presiding over the case, William Alsup of the Northern District of California, heard arguments from both sides about O.P.M.’s role in the mass firings at the agencies involved in the lawsuit, including the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Judge Alsup concluded that O.P.M. has no legal authority to order the agencies to fire anyone, ordered that the government retract the memos and said the government should put a stop to unlawful personnel moves. He also scheduled a hearing for Thursday, March 13, making clear he wanted Mr. Ezell to appear.
O.P.M. responded to his order by retracting the original memos, but the government disputed the need for Mr. Ezell’s testimony. Judge Alsup disagreed, ordering on Monday that Mr. Ezell come before the court.
“The problem here is that Acting Director Ezell submitted a sworn declaration in support of defendants’ position, but now refuses to appear to be cross-examined, or to be deposed,” Judge Alsup wrote Monday.
On Tuesday, the government confirmed that Mr. Ezell would not comply. Government lawyers said his testimony is not necessary “because existing documentary evidence and briefing demonstrates that O.P.M. is not directing agencies to terminate probationary employees.”
Since the lawsuit was filed, the unions have drastically expanded its scope, including fired employees from 28 agencies, up from the five in the initial complaint.
The broader scope reflects the extraordinary personnel actions that have been taken since Mr. Trump’s return to office and the opacity surrounding who is responsible for orchestrating the wholesale changes that have been ordered by O.P.M. — Mr. Trump or his government downsizing guru, the tech billionaire Elon Musk.
During his address to a joint session of Congress on March 4, Mr. Trump said Mr. Musk is the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which is overseeing the culling of the federal government. Two days later, Mr. Trump told members of his cabinet that they are the ones in charge of reducing the number of employees at their agencies, not Mr. Musk.
Yet members of Mr. Musk’s team continue to show up at federal agencies demanding data and documents and operating with outsized importance.
Mr. Ezell’s testimony on Thursday would have given lawyers representing the unions the opportunity to press him on O.P.M.’s role in how Mr. Trump’s government overhaul is being carried out. According to a court filing after the government’s notice informing the judge that Mr. Ezell would not testify, the court clerk said Thursday’s hearing would go on as planned.
Mr. Ezell took over as leader of O.P.M. on Inauguration Day. Before that, he was a lower-level official at the agency, overseeing data analytics. He also previously served as a consultant to the agency, according to his LinkedIn page.
Zach Montague and Devlin Barrett contributed reporting.