File Photo: Special Advisor Hampton Dillinger, US Special Advisor, registers portraits with undated handouts.
US Special Advisors Office | Via Reuters
A federal appeals court on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to remove the highest federal ethics watchdog from his office, but a lawsuit was launched challenging his firing.
The order that allowed Hampton Dillinger to be removed as head of the Special Advisor’s Office came four days after a U.S. District Court judge ruled that President Donald Trump’s attempt to indict Dillinger was “illegal and that the Special Advisor opposed the Trump administration’s termination of government-wide assurance employees.
However, an order by three unanimous judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit revealed the question of whether Dillinger could return to his position until he was able to get the result of the Trump administration’s appeal in the case.
The panel said it would issue an opinion describing the order “soon” and set a briefing schedule that would end on April 11th to promote the incident.
“The clerk has been instructed to calendar this case for oral discussion on the first appropriate date after the briefing is completed,” the panel wrote.
Since being filed by Dellinger, the case, although briefly, has already landed once on the knee of the Supreme Court. And it is likely that the High Court has the final say on whether Trump has the power to dismiss special advisors.
CNBC requested comment from Dellinger and his attorneys.
Dellinger, who had a five-year term, was appointed special advisor in March 2024 by then-President Joe Biden, and was later confirmed by the Senate.
Trump fired Dellinger by email last month as part of a broader effort to reduce the number of federal workers.
Dellinger’s office is responsible for protecting federal employees acting as whistleblowers of illegal or unethical conduct.
Dillinger sued the Trump administration in US District Court in Washington, D.C. over his firing.
He argued that his dismissal was illegal due to federal law that could only be removed by the president “for inefficiency, negligence of duty or misconduct in his duties.”
On February 10th, District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued an order, except for the removal of Dillinger, as the case continued.
The Trump administration then appealed to the Court of Appeals, refusing to overturn Berman’s order in a 2-1 ruling.
The Justice Department then asked the Supreme Court to rule that Trump has the power to fire Derlinger. However, the Supreme Court has now refused to pass the case through lower federal courts.
Berman then determined on Saturday that Trump’s firing was illegal.
“The job of a special advisor is to examine and expose unethical or illegal practices directed at federal civil servants, allowing whistleblowers who disclose agency fraud, waste and abuse to do so without suffering from retaliation,” Jackson wrote in her ruling.
“To say the least, it would be ironic that if the special advisor himself could be chilled in his work for fear of arbitrary or partisan removal, it would be ironic that it would be promoted by the law,” Jackson wrote.
The DOJ immediately asked the Court of Appeals on an emergency motion to hold the outcome of the appeal of that decision and maintain Jackson’s decision.
On Wednesday, three judges on the Court of Appeals committee said the Trump administration “meeted strict requirements for pending appeals.”
“This order will affect the removal of Dellinger from his position as a special advisor to the US Special Advisor,” the order states.
For weeks after Trump first tried to fire Derlinger, special advisers were opposed to the president’s efforts to fire probation employees at several federal agencies.
