A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Trump administration must reinstate probationary government employees fired unlawfully at several agencies, lambasting the Justice Department at a hearing for a “sham” gambit that enabled a key official to avoid testifying in the case.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s ruling broadens his previous order to now require the government to reinstate probationary employees fired on Feb. 13 and 14 at the Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury departments.
The case is one of multiple pending lawsuits challenging the mass terminations of probationary workers, who are usually in their first or second year in a role. The firings are just one dimension of a broader effort by the new Trump administration to reshape the federal bureaucracy, which has sparked dozens of lawsuits.
Alsup issued his ruling from the bench after criticizing the government for withdrawing a sworn declaration it submitted from acting Office of Personnel Management (OPM) head Charles Ezell so he wouldn’t have to testify and face cross-examination at Thursday’s hearing, as the judge had ordered.
“Come on, that’s a sham. Go ahead. It upsets me, I want you to know that. I’ve been practicing or serving in this court for over 50 years, and I know how do we get at the truth,” said Alsup, an appointee of former President Clinton.
“And you’re not helping me get at the truth. You’re giving me press releases, sham documents,” the judge added.
Ezell has played a central role in the lawsuit filed by a coalition of government employee unions, as it revolves around claims that Ezell and the OPM directed the firings of probationary employees, not individual federal agencies, in violation of the law and the separation of powers.
The judge had ordered Ezell to testify in his San Francisco courtroom Thursday to discuss his declaration. After the judge on Monday refused to relieve Ezell from testifying, the government withdrew the document so he wouldn’t have to show.
“Whenever you submit declarations, those people should be submitted to cross-examination, just like the plaintiffs’ side should be. And we can then we get at the truth of whether that’s what your story is actually true,” Alsup said Thursday.
“I tend to doubt it. I tend to doubt that you’re telling me the truth,” he told the government.
Later in the hearing, the judge apologized to Justice Department attorney Kelsey Helland for getting mad and clarified he hasn’t done anything “dishonorable” and is “doing the best he can with the case he’s got.”
“I respectfully disagree that we have submitted false evidence or have withdrawn evidence in an attempt to frustrate Your Honor’s efforts to find the truth,” Helland told the judge at one point.
Though Thursday’s ruling marks the most expansive block a federal judge has issued on the administration’s efforts to fire probationary employees, it is just one of several lawsuits currently pending on the issue. Democratic state attorneys general and individual employees have also sued.
“The words that I give you today should not be taken as some kind of wild and crazy judge in San Francisco has said that the administration cannot engage in a reduction in force. I’m not saying that at all,” Alsup noted as he issued his ruling.
“Of course, if he does, it has to comply with the statutory requirements: the Reduction In Force act, the Civil Service Act, the Constitution, maybe other statutes,” the judge continued. “But it can be done.”
