FILE PHOTO: Special Counsel of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger poses for a portrait in an undated handout image.
U.S. Office Of Special Counsel | Via Reuters
A federal appeals court in an order Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to remove a top federal ethics watchdog from his office.
The order permitting the removal of Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel came four days after a federal district court judge ruled that President Donald Trump‘s attempt to boot Dellinger was “unlawful.”
However, the order left open the question of whether Dellinger will be able to return to his position pending an appeal in the case, which since being filed by Dellinger has already landed in the lap of the Supreme Court once, albeit briefly.
The Supreme Court is likely to ultimately decide the case.
Trump fired Dellinger by email last month as part of a wide-ranging effort to reduce the number of federal workers. Dellinger’s office is responsible for protecting federal employees who act as whistleblowers about illegal or unethical conduct.
Dellinger sued the Trump administration in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., over his termination, which he argued was illegal because of a federal law that says special counsels can only be removed by the president “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance of office.”
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