A federal judge ordered President Donald Trumpâs administration to rehire thousands of federal employees fired from six agencies, ruling Thursday that the terminations were carried out unlawfully by a government personnel office overseen by a Georgia bureaucrat.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs to reinstate the employees fired in mid-February. Charles Ezell, the acting manager of the governmentâs human relations arm, provided the agencies with instructions on how to handle the terminations.
Ezell was a low-level data analyst from Middle Georgia until a Trump adviser offered him the job a few weeks ago as acting director of the Office of Personnel Management. He was ordered to testify at Thursdayâs hearing, but his attorneys said he would not appear.
Ezellâs department sent detailed guidance to federal agencies outlining steps to fire an estimated 200,000 federal probationary workers, triggering a legal challenge contending that Ezellâs guidance was an âinsidiousâ move to gut the federal workforce.
Ezell had insisted that his agency wasnât directly hiring or firing employees but was merely offering âguidance.â However, Alsup ruled that OPM actively encouraged agency heads to dismiss probationary workers by citing poor performance â regardless of their actual records.
âIt is a sad day, when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well thatâs a lie,â Alsup said in his ruling from the bench. âThat should not have been done in our country.â
Alsup also directed the agencies to produce lists of probationary employees within seven days and extended a restraining order that blocks the OPM from carrying out any further mass firings.
The White House and OPM officials didnât immediately comment on the ruling. Ezell, too, has declined requests seeking details over how he vaulted from a low-profile job at the agencyâs Macon office to the center of Trumpâs administration.
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