“In the states’ case, filed in Baltimore’s federal court, the attorneys general argued that the administration had violated a 6-day notice requirement for so-called reductions in force – or RIFS – as well as other procedural steps for such mass terminations. The administration countered that no such notice was required for the layoffs, done quickly in early days of the administration, because federal law allows the government to terminate probationary employees under certain circumstances without any heads up.
Bredar on Thursday rejected the administration’s arguments that the terminations fit into a category not requiring notice because the employees were fired because of their substandard performance.
“Here, the terminated probationary employees were plainly not terminated for cause,” Bredar wrote in a 56-page opinion. “The sheer number of employees that were terminated in a matter of days belies any argument that these terminations were due to the employees’ individual unsatisfactory performance or conduct.””
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“The upshot of Bredar’s ruling, as he acknowledged at a hearing Tuesday, is that the administration would be allowed to lay off the employees en masse if it went through the proper RIF procedures, including the advance notice. His ruling also noted the administration is free to fire individualized employees without following the RIF rules if they are being fired for cause, “on the basis of good-faith individualized determinations.””
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“The Trump administration has been targeting probationary workers because they have fewer job protections and can be dismissed more easily. Federal probationary employees have typically been in their positions for one year, but some jobs have two-year probationary periods. The employees may be new to the federal workforce, but they also could have been recently promoted or shifted to a different agency.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/second-federal-judge-orders-temporary-022435122.html
Trump fires top military lawyers so they aren’t roadblocks to anything Trump wants to do. But, the lawyers are supposed to be roadblocks! They are there to help the military follow the law and the Constitution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41qCPFPzsbw
“Fired inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Phyllis Fong was removed from her Washington D.C. office on Monday after refusing to comply with the conditions of her termination.
A 22-year-old veteran of the department—which has a broad mandate to investigate food safety and animal welfare—Fong’s office has been investigating Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink, among other investigations into the Boar’s Head’s listeria outbreak.
The USDA launched a federal investigation into Neuralink in 2022 for potential animal-welfare violations following internal staff complaints alleging the needless suffering and deaths of animals via testing, reported Reuters at the time.
On Friday, Fong was one of 17 federal watchdogs given their walking papers by the Trump administration, reported Reuters. However, Fong told her colleagues in an email that she intended to stay in her post, arguing that “these termination notices do not comply with the requirements set out in law and therefore are not effective at this time.””
https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-foe-escorted-fed-004315382.html
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tucker-carlson-no-longer-fox-154155412.html
“President Donald Trump has fired Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan who has led investigations of the president’s inner circle. Berman had refused to step down from his post Friday after US Attorney General Bill Barr attempted to oust him.
Barr, who has long been accused of protecting Trump’s close allies, announced Berman’s resignation in a press release late Friday in an apparent effort to draw little attention to the matter. He named Jay Clayton, the current chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has no experience as a prosecutor, as Trump’s pick for Berman’s successor.
But within hours, Berman countered that he did not, and would not, tender his resignation and that the first he had heard of it was from Barr’s press release.
“I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position,” Berman said in a statement. “I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption.”
On Saturday, however, Barr told Berman in a letter that the president had fired him: “Because you have declared you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so,” wrote Barr. Berman’s deputy, Audrey Strauss, will serve as the acting US attorney in Manhattan until his replacement is confirmed by the Senate, according to the Washington Post.”
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“Berman has been investigating Giuliani’s efforts to find damaging information in Ukraine about Trump’s political opponents to determine whether he violated laws on lobbying for foreign entities. He has also indicted two of Giuliani’s business associates and successfully pursued a case against Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump’s plans to build a skyscraper in Moscow.
Berman is not the first official who the Trump administration has ousted in recent months. Trump also fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who played a central role in bringing the whistleblower complaint at the heart of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry to light, and State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, who was reportedly investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.”
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“The Justice Department has historically operated independently from the executive branch, but under Trump, that paradigm has appeared to change.”