Federal judge rules Trump’s firing of head of special counsel was unlawful, will maintain his job

A D.C.-based federal district judge ruled late Saturday evening that President Donald Trump’s firing of the head of the Office of Special Counsel was unlawful, keeping him in his post. The Trump administration filed their notice of appeal shortly thereafter. 

Hampton Dellinger, appointed by former President Joe Biden to head the Office of Special Counsel, sued the Trump administration in Washington, D.C., federal court after his Feb. 7 firing. 

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D.C. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote in the Saturday filing that the court’s ruling that Dellinger’s firing was “unlawful” is consistent with Supreme Court precedent. 

The Trump administration filed its notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit shortly after Jackson’s ruling. 

Jackson wrote that the court “finds that the elimination of the restrictions on plaintiff’s removal would be fatal to the defining and essential feature of the Office of Special Counsel as it was conceived by Congress and signed into law by the President:  its independence.  The Court concludes that they must stand.”

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Jackson enjoined the defendants in the suit, including Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, ordering them to recognize Dellinger’s post. Jackson did not enjoin Trump. 

“It would be ironic, to say the least, and inimical to the ends furthered by the statute if the Special Counsel himself could be chilled in his work by fear of arbitrary or partisan removal,” Jackson wrote. 

Jackson’s decision comes after the U.S. Supreme Court paused the Trump administration’s efforts to dismiss Dellinger. The Trump administration had asked the high court to overturn a lower court’s temporary reinstatement of Dellinger. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.