SUBMIT IMAGE: Special Counsel of the UNITED STATE Office of Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger positions for a picture in an undated handout photo.
UNITED STATE Office Of Special Counsel|Via Reuters
A government appeals court on Wednesday permitted the Trump management to eliminate a leading government values guard dog from his workplace while a legal action testing his discontinuation plays out.
The order allowing the elimination of Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel came 4 days after a government area court judge ruled that President Donald Trump’s effort too Dellinger was “unlawful, and as the special counsel opposes the terminations of probationary employees throughout the government by the Trump administration.
However, the order by a unanimous three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit left open the question of whether Dellinger will be able to return to his position pending the outcome of the Trump administration’s appeal in the case.
The panel, which said it would issue an opinion explaining its order ” eventually,” also expedited the case, setting a briefing schedule that will end April 11.
“The Clerk is guided to schedule this situation for dental debate this term on the initial proper day adhering to the conclusion of rundown,” the panel wrote.
Since being filed by Dellinger, the case has already landed in the lap of the Supreme Court once, albeit briefly. And the high court is likely to have the final say on whether Trump has the power to dismiss the special counsel.
has requested comment from Dellinger and his attorneys.
Dellinger, who had a five-year term, was appointed as special counsel in March 2024 by then-President Joe Biden, and later confirmed by the Senate.
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.
He argued his dismissal was illegal because of a federal law that says special counsels can only be removed by the president ” for ineffectiveness, overlook of obligation, or impropriety of workplace.”
District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Feb. 10 issued an order barring Dellinger’s removal as the case continued.
The Trump administration then appealed to the Court of Appeals, which in a 2-1 ruling declined to overturn Berman’s order.
The Department of Justice then asked the Supreme Court to rule that Trump had the power to fire Dellinger. But the Supreme Court declined to do so, for now, letting the case wind its way through lower federal courts.
Berman then ruled on Saturday that Trump’s firing was unlawful.
“The Special Counsel’s task is to check into and reveal dishonest or illegal techniques guided at government civil slaves, and to aid make certain that whistleblowers that reveal fraudulence, waste, and misuse for federal government firms can do so without experiencing retributions,” Jackson wrote in her ruling.
“It would certainly be paradoxical, to claim the least, and hostile throughout enhanced by the law if the Special Counsel himself might be cooled in his job by worry of approximate or partial elimination,” Jackson wrote.
The DOJ immediately asked the Court of Appeals in an emergency motion to stay Jackson’s ruling pending the outcome of its appeal of that decision.
In its order Wednesday, the three judges on the appeals court panel said the Trump administration had ” pleased the rigid needs for a remain pending allure.”
“This order offers impact to the elimination of appellee [Dellinger] from his placement as Special Counsel of the UNITED STATE Office of Special Counsel,” the order kept in mind.
In the weeks because Trump initially attempted to fire Dellinger, the unique advice had actually opposed the head of state’s initiatives to discharge probationary staff members throughout numerous government firms.
