Last week, the Trump administration conducted a mass firing of probationary federal employees across several agencies, targeting tens of thousands of people and creating a sense of chaos and outrage among government workers. Now one lawyer—who is challenging his own firing by the Trump administration—is trying to defend those workers from layoffs.
On Monday, Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), filed initial requests to “stay,” or pause, the terminations of six probationary employees across various executive agencies. This is a separate agency from the Department of Justice’s prosecutorial agency. Probationary employees have usually been hired recently, or are longtime federal employees who have recently moved to new positions. The requests were filed with the U.S. Merit Systems Protections Board (MSPB), the quasi-judicial body that reviews decisions made by the Office of Personnel Management and has the authority to halt terminations.
“[F]iring probationary employees without individualized cause appears contrary to a reasonable reading of the law, particularly the provisions establishing rules for reductions in force,” Dellinger wrote in a statement posted to the OSC website. He added that because the OSC is entrusted to protect government employees from prohibited personnel practices, he has a “responsibility” to request a stay.
Notably, Dellinger was himself fired by the Trump administration earlier this month. After his dismissal on Feb. 7, he immediately filed suit to block his termination, which was upheld by the courts. The dispute made its way all the way up to the Supreme Court, but the justices have said they will not interfere with the lower court’s decision until Feb. 26, when the temporary order is set to expire. Dellinger was appointed by President Biden in 2024 and confirmed to serve a five-year term by Congress, which directed that he could only be fired for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
Dellinger’s decision to push back against the mass federal worker cullings that have characterized the early days of the second Trump administration is taking place at the same time as a larger resistance over the past few days, during which the Trump-appointed heads of federal agencies have shown an increased unwillingness to carrot out mass layoffs. Over the weekend, the heads of several federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, the State Department, the FBI and NASA released statements pushing back against the latest directives from Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and telling employees not to respond to a mass email asking them to list their weekly accomplishments.
In the case of probationary employees, the MSPB’s decision could provide a pathway back to employment for thousands of federal employees who have been terminated due to their probationary status. Dellinger also noted that he is considering ways to seek relief for a broader group without having to file individual cases with the OSC. If the MSPB does not either halt the terminations or deny the request by Feb. 27, the stay requested by the Office of Special Counsel will automatically take effect.
The request for investigations into the terminations of probationary employees was first made by Democracy Forward and the Alden Law Group on Feb. 14. Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, applauded news of OSC stay requests in a statement on Monday.
“[The] news from the Office of Special Counsel confirms what we have long known: the mass termination of federal workers is unlawful, and Trump’s only plan here seems to be to inflict chaos and suffering on the American people and the federal workers who serve them as opposed to using our government to better the lives of working Americans, families, and communities across the country,” she wrote.
