Ex-DOJ employees sue Bondi for wrongful termination

By David Thomas

July 25 (Reuters) - Three former Justice Department employees, including a lawyer who prosecuted people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, have filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Trump administration.

Plaintiffs Michael Gordon, Patricia Hartman and Joseph Tirrell said their respective terminations by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi violated federal civil service protections. They were each handed a one-page memo between late June and early July informing them of their firing.

"No cause, let alone a proper merit-based one, or required due process was provided to Plaintiffs with respect to their termination and removal," the plaintiffs said in their lawsuit, filed Thursday in D.C. federal court.

Bondi, the Justice Department and the Executive Office of the President were named as defendants in the lawsuit. A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment. A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The three plaintiffs are represented by a group of lawyers, including Abbe Lowell, a former Winston & Strawn partner who earlier this year launched his own firm, Mark Zaid and Bradley Moss of Mark S. Zaid P.C., and Norman Eisen of Democracy Defenders Fund.

"The DOJ employees at the center of this case served with distinction, followed the law, not politics, and were fired for it," Lowell said in a statement.

The Justice Department since January has been dismissing employees who worked on matters involving Trump or his supporters, citing Trump's executive powers under the U.S. Constitution.

Gordon was an assistant U.S. attorney who worked in the Middle District of Florida; from November 2021 to December 2023, he was the senior trial counsel to the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office's Capitol Siege Section.

Hartman was a supervisory public affairs specialist working out of the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office when she was terminated. The lawsuit said Hartman was "the primary official handling public affairs work specific to the government's prosecution" of Jan. 6 cases.

Tirrell was the director of DOJ's departmental ethics office.