The judge can and should inform the Justice Department that the Court will appoint a special prosecutor if the Department drops the case. The Court should also issue a show cause order against Bove why he shouldn’t be referred for disciplinary action because of his unethical behavior. Time for federal judges to get tough with people who are trying to destroy the country.
Yes the Gov of NY should can Adams immediately. As a layperson I did read the entire letter from Sassoon. You don't need to be a lawyer to hear the outrage in what she wrote. And yes, losing ethical people across our gov is going to make us less safe but I applaud them for fighting against the TRUE weaponization of the DOJ etc. We can not just go along!! Seeing Trump kick out the AP for not referring to the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America? What will he demand next? Call the USA the US of Trump? Scary
I also thanked Gov Hochul for standing up to the Louisiana AG.With the firehose
of news,what is happening with reproductive rights is getting buried.It’s absolutely horrifying.Attempts to extradite physicians and 6 states have filed legislation that would charge a woman who has an abortion with murder,many of those states have the death penalty.
“New York is a shield state that protects abortion providers and allows them to mail abortion medication without fear of prosecution. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says “there’s no way in hell” she’d extradite Carpenter.”
I'm always happy to see these people take a stand; we need more of it. However, I'm not ready to declare Danielle Sassoon (or the rest) a saint; let's see if she takes any lessons from this experience and leaves the organization that provides us with "judges" like Aileen Cannon. The Federalist Society. If not her integrity falls short. If the reason they resigned is a corrupt system, they MUST leave that system. That includes the Federalist Society.
Also; do the crimes committed by Adams violate NY State law? Why is DA Bragg not investigating Adams; same goes for NYAG James.
It does. But, people should not stay in a job where they are required and ordered to ignore the law and their own ethics. Once you do that, you are compromised and the corrupt side knows it. You may say you are doing so to be the adult in the room or the resistance still attached to the group/office/position but once you overlook blatant illegal or corrupt orders, you are compromised. It is far better to stand up for what you believe in and leave after saying exactly why you are leaving. Ms Sassoon and all those who followed did the right thing. Now they can continue to fight against the fascists and against the corruption without any black marks against them.
They should absolutely not be bullied out of their jobs because they are standing up for the Constitution. They need to be there to continue to influence their fellow employees and strengthen the rule of law. Their replacements obviously won't. They should force that administration to fire them rather than resign, and then go to court to fight their wrongful termination.
Lose cases? To Trump judges? Sure, I know that Trump judges have ruled against him repeatedly in the past, but that was under the previous administration. Trump 2.0 will not allow contrary rulings - simple as that. That's why Bove is so cavalier in making threats that could expose his own shortcomings and corruptness. He - and Trump and Bondi - are just itching for a test case (i.e., show trial) to set the stage for what the Bondi "Justice" Department is all aabout.Trump justice will be just like Trump education, and Trump healthcare, and Trump immigration reform, etc. Trump is only delughted to take tge resignations of Sassoon and anyone else who doesn't get on board his billionaire-fueled train. He won election by a slim margin, but he's plowing ahead as if he received a landslide "mandate."
Since apparently we have a "volunteer" to request the dismissal- do they go lie to a judge or do they lay it out for the judge? Put the onus on the judge and not themselves? If it were me I would lay it out. Because from the little I know someone volunteered to keep others from being fired, not that they were in agreement of what was being done
They still need to win cases to be effective. They won't if they are not skilled lawyers. The Bar seems to have a limited number of good legal minds who are MAGA supporters, for obvious reasons.
Bove (and Bundi) are among the cult members that are mediocre lawyers with Zero ethics or self-respect. The resume’ stain needs to follow them for the rest of their days.
They've been saying the quiet part out loud for that longest time but that's what gets them in the end, their arrogance and the belief that they are untouchable.
this was kind of the concern I raised reading HCRs letter this morning. I applaud the resignations, it brings to light the true amount of corruption we are dealing with. However what happens when all the legit people are gone? When they finally find that one that is willing to bend the law? When they backfill those positions with the loyalest of the loyal who are willing to bend the law? Then we have no law at all and that is my biggest fear. It's what the P2025 agenda wants, it's the final key in the destruction of this country IMO
I dont think that those that resigned will end up going quietly in the night. They will now be free to pursue their own cases perhaps class actions against the turd goblins.
Umm, there’s an ongoing bloodbath across the entire civil service right now. And no one seems to be interested in talking about it.
THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of probationary employees are being illegally fired via the same generic form letter across the entire federal government. The purge is actively taking place RIGHT NOW. And no one who isn’t a civil servant or close to one seems to give the slightest shit.
Kowtowing corporate media may not be covering it, but we’ve come to expect that. I’ve seen all kinds of information, including on Jay’s Substack about this illegal purge. There is a lawsuit filed against it. Maryland senators Van Holland, and Alsobrooks held a conference call for civil servants who have been illegally fired, to gather facts and provide info, as well as reassurance.
This purge started last night. I have not seen it covered here. There has been talk of it starting for some time. But it has begun in earnest, and it has gone un-commented-on.
Frankly, Anne Applebaum’s latest in The Atlantic is the only publication that I have seen that comes halfway close to capturing the urgency of the occasion.
So can all of these purged employees file for unemployment just like in the private sector? I'm not clear on that. And won't unemployment numbers spike? Trump seems to have competed in the past with Democratic presidents on how many jobs he created but now he's doing the exact opposite...Trump: The Job Killer President. Does he think they'll all go to work in the fields to replace the migrants he's deporting?
They can't just claim "fired for cause" without being able to provide evidence or the unemployment coverage will be approved. That's why companies put employees on PIPs and document the hell out of the process before they fire someone.
They are citing performance in the emails employees are being sent. That’s also what will be listed on these people’s SF-52s, which is the form we are issued when separating from civil service and which is the form unemployment offices require of former federal employees to document unemployment.
I have an entire branch of my family tree who have dedicated their careers to Federal civil service for generations, VA, Dept of Energy and USAID.. Take heart that many people do care about all of them. It's just that there are so many battles being fought at the same time, it's sadly not possible to give all of them the attention they are due.
Those lawsuits are being filed by the people being illegally fired.
Again: I understand that people know that Elon Musk has it in for civil servants. What the civil servants need other Americans to know is that he is obliterating our ranks illegally right this very moment. The crisis moment is now.
Came here to say exactly this, JW. We’ve been a federal employee family for 20 years. People in our lives are practically dancing on the graves of civil servants. “He’s finally draining the corrupt swamp!”
My office lost about 10% of its staff today. Every one of them was an amazing hard worker who was damn good at their job.
My spouse is probationary in another department. Converted to a federal position after being in literally the same role in a contracted position for the last four years. Has a completely unique and valuable skillset within their office. It’s only a matter of time before they’re offed. It could have already happened for all I know.
These are our lives. That we worked hard for and earned. We took pay cuts to do this work, and we love what we do. I in particular have a deep commitment to the ideal of civil service. Walking around DC wearing this doofy PIV card on a lanyard around my neck is my literal childhood dream. And the neighborhood bully is frying us like ants under a magnifying glass while the other kids gather around and laugh.
Thank you, Jay. I am sure you will be able to articulate the illegality of these mass firings more cogently and succinctly than I.
Many thousands of families have had their lives irreparably damaged, sometimes destroyed, since Thursday afternoon. I continue to worry that the public doesn’t appreciate the immensity of what has unfolded. (For starters, the fact that most of the press that I can find tends to call these firings “lay offs” is quite discouraging in this regard.)
I don’t intend in anyway to belittle the import of what is happening regarding the Eric Adams case and the courage of these DOJ lawyers. They are my fellow feds, and I’m proud of them beyond telling. (And can’t help but wonder if the ongoing massacre of the rest of us might have been arrested had a few departmental HR heads taken the oaths they swore half as seriously and resigned publicly rather than cravenly allowed for the firing of thousands, which they know to be blatantly illegal.) But Sassoon, Scotten, and the others face much better odds of paying their March mortgage than does the wage grade facilities maintenance guy I work with who was just fired. He needs someone shouting his story from the rooftops too.
I know human stories have impact in a way that “XYZ illegally fired from Department ABC” just don’t. I am certain that if you approach the folks at the fed worker subreddits and ask for their stories, you’ll have people willing to share about the impact. (Leading with a Signal contact would help. Folks are rightly scared of bad actors.)
I know in Michigan at least where I worked under a union contract, probationary employees could be let go without cause. Is that what is going on in the federal government?
No. Federal employees serve a probationary period of between one and three years, depending on what type of position they have. (There may be positions with longer probations, but I’m not familiar with them.) This is for folks new to the civil service as well as established people taking new jobs in certain cases.
Probationary employees can be fired for two reasons:
1. For conditions “arising before [their] appointment.” Essentially, this means if they realize you lied on your application or hid something about yourself that would have made you unqualified for the position.
2. For performance. In my agency at least, firing a probationary employee for performance isn’t as simple as saying, “You’re a bad performer, so you’re gone.” There’s still a process, although it’s essentially a series of hoops the supervisor must jump through.
Depending on whether your position is “competitive” or “excepted” (terms that describe the way you were hired— you can read up on these if you’d like), you have some limited appeal options regarding #1, as well as if you were fired due to your being in a protected class or because of your political affiliations.
Now, the problem comes in WRT firings for performance. These are not open to appeal, and probationary employees are not due any advanced notice or time to improve their performance. (IE a performance improvement plan—government speak for what’s often called “being put on probation” in the private sector).
And that is what is ostensibly happening right now. Somehow, many thousands of employees have been found to be underperforming on the very same day and are being fired via identical emails without any specifics at all. Their first-line supervisors have not been consulted. No documentation of their supposed underperformance has been provided. Many of these people have, in fact, received superlative performance reviews. (Remember: some probationary folks have been here over a year, and many agencies use quarterly evaluations, so even many people of quite short tenure have had ample time to have their deficiencies documented.) These directives are rolling down from Department headquarters, with identical language being used throughout the government. That this is an attempt at an illegal mass firing is apparent, but they are counting on the insertion of “performance” into these transparently illegal firings to cover their asses.
We will see if they are successful. But given the lack of public attention, to say nothing of outcry, I’m not hopeful that they’ll fail to slide this one past the public.
This is happening because, while probationary employees have some protections, they have far fewer than those who have achieved tenure. Probationary employees are only the first. They will not be the last.
Trump signed a little noticed Executive Order on Tuesday night dictating these firings and ordering all departments to prepare for wide scale reductions in force (RIFs). RIFs are complicated and confusing, but the manner in which this is being implemented is, to say the least, highly irregular. They are supposed to be in response to budgetary constraints and instigated at Congress’s instruction. They are also generally done within a certain agency, or even a certain geographical area. They are NOT a tool to get around the laws protecting the nonpartisan, merit-based civil service to enact sweeping removals of civil servants that the president doesn’t personally like.
I know the civil service isn’t sexy, and it’s fun to bitch about the IRS or the Social Security Administration. But Forest Service just fired all its probationary firefighters. Rural residents are going to die with these people gone. The National Nuclear Security Administration, which is charged with keeping our nuclear arsenal safe, just fired all its probationary employees. We could ALL die with these people gone. No one is so credulous as to think that every single one of these people was unqualified and that was just discovered on Thursday afternoon.
The cuts are everywhere and they are indiscriminate. This has NOTHING to do with any legal cause for removal of probationary employees. It is explicitly, obviously, glaringly illegal.
I can attest it’s happening at DoD today, as well. The lack of public outcry is beyond disheartening. I’ve been trying to sound the alarm for a few weeks. I just had a baby, and the panic level in our household is palpable.
We need to make some noise about this obviously. With all the R driven chaos, people are overwhelmed. But I will share on my social media and encourage others to do the same.
Sending USDA hugs your way. I can’t imagine the added fear with a newborn. One of my probationary colleagues who was fired gave birth to her first child two weeks ago. I’ve never felt more alone. I can’t understand why no one is prioritizing our stories. I’ve been bathed in a vat of cortisol for weeks. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat (I’ve lost over five pounds since 1/20), I can’t focus.
Just got news from my husband, who’s probational at NIH. Looks like it’ll be official for him in about an hour.
Our lives are being destroyed because of absolutely nothing we’ve done or could have done.
Please DM me if you’d ever like to talk, either here or over coffee if you’re also in the DMV. We really are in this phase of it alone, which means it’s all the more important we stick together.
This is horrendous. I heard about the Forest Service and National Park Service employees yesterday. I understand this isn't being amplied enouogh but there is also sooooo much going on all at once it all can't be amplified. This is all by design unfortunately. Hoping for it to all be rectified and soon!
I must report great news out of New Mexico. I've been calling our Attorney General to bring state charges against Musk for over a week.
Dateline Feb 13: Albuquerque, NM – Today, Attorney General Raúl Torrez, along with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and 11 other states, announced the filing of a lawsuit challenging the unlawful delegation of executive power to Elon Musk. The lawsuit argues that President Trump has violated the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution by creating a new federal Department without Congressional approval and by granting Musk sweeping powers over the entire federal government without seeking the advice and consent of the Senate.
I was a journalist during the Watergate years, and the Saturday Night Massacre was signal in displaying Nixon's disregard and disrespect for the law. Trump's obvious corruption is exponentially worse.
I’m not sure why this is a problem for Bondi and Company as you say. They just got rid of professional, upstanding attorneys in one swoop and will replace them with hacks who will surely follow orders from the WH.
The hacks can try but there may not be enough of them, and the hackier they are, the more blunders they will make in defending against the gazillion lawsuits brought against the regime, and the more likely they are to be disbarred too.
Yes, the incompetence of Trump’s attorneys defending him will become the incompetence of the DOJ defending the administration against the many lawsuits being filed against its illegal actions.
And YET AGAIN it is a woman who has shown courage, integrity, and the presence of a strong backbone. Add her name to the Honor Roll that includes Liz, Shaye, Ruby, Olivia, Sarah and Cassidy.
'Government' by gangsters... Good Fellas meet The Sopranos. This mess is all down to our utter and total dependence on elected officials to obey norms. tRump has been a high-priced mobster his whole adult life (and a juvenile delinquent before that). We have no legal way to rid ourselves of a rogue president in the short term.
Wild hare of a question: could the American Bar Association just start disbarring lawyers working for Trump's DoJ whenever they go before a judge making these patently unconstitutional and time-wasting arguments? Aren't there penalties for you as a lawyer if you are dangerously disingenuous in your representation of a case? Or are so grossly incompetent and obstructive in your filings/arguments that you're frivolously wasting the Court's time and efforts? Because all of the legal arguments coming out of Trump's DoJ are so poorly executed, you'd think that the ABA could enforce some base level of professional competence over Trump's lawyers until he literally just runs out of lawyers to run the affairs of the DoJ. I mean, they are not making valid legal arguments, they're literally pitching illegal ideas against the wall. Isn't there some kind of penalty for that?
The ABA is a voluntary organization, it doesn’t have this power. The state bar associations are the mandatory ones that discipline lawyers in their jurisdictions.
The general population doesn’t have the time or the attention span to understand the significance of Sassoon resigning. Is this even on the public’s radar??
This! I had the same thought when I was reading. This is appalling to those who follow politics, but the average American would probably scoff and go back to trying to make ends meet for their family. They literally do not have time or resources to care about this. It sucks, but right now that's how it is.
I'd love to see this case as a "stunning and significant national case of embarrassment for the Justice Department" as Jay writes. However, I'm guessing that only a tiny percentage of Americans know who Eric Adams or Pam Bondi are and have no clue about this case.
What will embarrass DOJ and Trump-Musk are thousands of people on the street protesting their flagrant corruption and lawlessness. Protest rallies and marches across the country are planned for President's Day on Monday, February 17. Check w/ Mobilize.org or Indivisible.org to see if there's one near you. If there's not, start one. A few people with signs is a protest!
Be sure to keep the pressure on Congress. Call your senators and representatives daily to demand they protect the rule of law and our democracy. Ask for a written response. Stay polite. Thank them for their work if it's deserved. If their D.C. phones are busy, call a Congressional office in your state. If you can't call, email them through their websites. USE YOUR VOICE.
Judges do read the news and even the right-wing ones likely have at least some self-respect (except for sycophantic scum like Cannon), and don’t want to be complicit in obvious political corruption.
Resist at every opportunity, big or small, it will all add up.
Yes! This is my new tag line 🫶🏼🇺🇸
Judith: Wow! You say it so clearly, so concisely.
Your words form such a catchy and TRUE TO THE CORE principle, that one can easily memorize it and use it as a saying!
Thank you, thank you!
The judge can and should inform the Justice Department that the Court will appoint a special prosecutor if the Department drops the case. The Court should also issue a show cause order against Bove why he shouldn’t be referred for disciplinary action because of his unethical behavior. Time for federal judges to get tough with people who are trying to destroy the country.
Supposedly Trump is done with special prosecutors, so his DOJ will likely not comply.
Yes the Gov of NY should can Adams immediately. As a layperson I did read the entire letter from Sassoon. You don't need to be a lawyer to hear the outrage in what she wrote. And yes, losing ethical people across our gov is going to make us less safe but I applaud them for fighting against the TRUE weaponization of the DOJ etc. We can not just go along!! Seeing Trump kick out the AP for not referring to the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America? What will he demand next? Call the USA the US of Trump? Scary
Let’s put pressure on Gov Hochul to remove Eric Adams!📲
Hochul's number in Albany is 1-518-474-8390 | Office hours: 9:00am to 5:00pm
Call after hours if you’re phone shy.
Here is a form letter: https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form
I also thanked Gov Hochul for standing up to the Louisiana AG.With the firehose
of news,what is happening with reproductive rights is getting buried.It’s absolutely horrifying.Attempts to extradite physicians and 6 states have filed legislation that would charge a woman who has an abortion with murder,many of those states have the death penalty.
“New York is a shield state that protects abortion providers and allows them to mail abortion medication without fear of prosecution. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says “there’s no way in hell” she’d extradite Carpenter.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/jessica/p/louisiana-signs-extradition-order?
Soon he will want the US to be called Trumplandia.
I'm always happy to see these people take a stand; we need more of it. However, I'm not ready to declare Danielle Sassoon (or the rest) a saint; let's see if she takes any lessons from this experience and leaves the organization that provides us with "judges" like Aileen Cannon. The Federalist Society. If not her integrity falls short. If the reason they resigned is a corrupt system, they MUST leave that system. That includes the Federalist Society.
Also; do the crimes committed by Adams violate NY State law? Why is DA Bragg not investigating Adams; same goes for NYAG James.
When the capable people we want in offices like that resign, though, doesn't that just leave an opening for someone who will do what Trump wants?
It does. But, people should not stay in a job where they are required and ordered to ignore the law and their own ethics. Once you do that, you are compromised and the corrupt side knows it. You may say you are doing so to be the adult in the room or the resistance still attached to the group/office/position but once you overlook blatant illegal or corrupt orders, you are compromised. It is far better to stand up for what you believe in and leave after saying exactly why you are leaving. Ms Sassoon and all those who followed did the right thing. Now they can continue to fight against the fascists and against the corruption without any black marks against them.
They should absolutely not be bullied out of their jobs because they are standing up for the Constitution. They need to be there to continue to influence their fellow employees and strengthen the rule of law. Their replacements obviously won't. They should force that administration to fire them rather than resign, and then go to court to fight their wrongful termination.
Since it looks like you replied directly to my post - we can agree to disagree on the best way to handle being told to commit fraud on the job.
They're defying the regime. They're going to get fired anyway. Might as well go out with a statement.
It will leave openings, for sure, but the important word to keep in mind is “ capable”.
They don't care about capable, they care about loyal and the willingness to bend the laws
If they're not capable, though, they will lose cases and then become a liability to team Trumpfenfuehrer.
Lose cases? To Trump judges? Sure, I know that Trump judges have ruled against him repeatedly in the past, but that was under the previous administration. Trump 2.0 will not allow contrary rulings - simple as that. That's why Bove is so cavalier in making threats that could expose his own shortcomings and corruptness. He - and Trump and Bondi - are just itching for a test case (i.e., show trial) to set the stage for what the Bondi "Justice" Department is all aabout.Trump justice will be just like Trump education, and Trump healthcare, and Trump immigration reform, etc. Trump is only delughted to take tge resignations of Sassoon and anyone else who doesn't get on board his billionaire-fueled train. He won election by a slim margin, but he's plowing ahead as if he received a landslide "mandate."
true but I fear by the time all of that is realized it's too late, the damage is done
True, but whoever ends up requesting dismissal will have to lie to the judge and hopefully will get sanctioned.
Since apparently we have a "volunteer" to request the dismissal- do they go lie to a judge or do they lay it out for the judge? Put the onus on the judge and not themselves? If it were me I would lay it out. Because from the little I know someone volunteered to keep others from being fired, not that they were in agreement of what was being done
That’s my fear…that Bove will fill the open positions with people who will do his and trump’s bidding.
They still need to win cases to be effective. They won't if they are not skilled lawyers. The Bar seems to have a limited number of good legal minds who are MAGA supporters, for obvious reasons.
Bove (and Bundi) are among the cult members that are mediocre lawyers with Zero ethics or self-respect. The resume’ stain needs to follow them for the rest of their days.
Maybe he will, but he can't do it in secrecy any more.
I don't think they care about doing it in secret do they?
NO they don't care.
They've been saying the quiet part out loud for that longest time but that's what gets them in the end, their arrogance and the belief that they are untouchable.
this was kind of the concern I raised reading HCRs letter this morning. I applaud the resignations, it brings to light the true amount of corruption we are dealing with. However what happens when all the legit people are gone? When they finally find that one that is willing to bend the law? When they backfill those positions with the loyalest of the loyal who are willing to bend the law? Then we have no law at all and that is my biggest fear. It's what the P2025 agenda wants, it's the final key in the destruction of this country IMO
I dont think that those that resigned will end up going quietly in the night. They will now be free to pursue their own cases perhaps class actions against the turd goblins.
Let's hope something big comes from this. I'm still holding onto hope for us but some days it does seem bleak
I agree. With every resignation a lickspittle will be put in their place.
Just about anyone who goes to work for this administration has to be incompetent and foolish. Those types don't win cases.
I was wondering the same thing.
Once again it is a woman who stands up and says “no, I won’t be complicit”. Where are the men?
Not in Congress, that's for damn sure!
Where they always are, hiding behind the women!
Umm, there’s an ongoing bloodbath across the entire civil service right now. And no one seems to be interested in talking about it.
THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of probationary employees are being illegally fired via the same generic form letter across the entire federal government. The purge is actively taking place RIGHT NOW. And no one who isn’t a civil servant or close to one seems to give the slightest shit.
Kowtowing corporate media may not be covering it, but we’ve come to expect that. I’ve seen all kinds of information, including on Jay’s Substack about this illegal purge. There is a lawsuit filed against it. Maryland senators Van Holland, and Alsobrooks held a conference call for civil servants who have been illegally fired, to gather facts and provide info, as well as reassurance.
It was covered on The Hill.
This purge started last night. I have not seen it covered here. There has been talk of it starting for some time. But it has begun in earnest, and it has gone un-commented-on.
Frankly, Anne Applebaum’s latest in The Atlantic is the only publication that I have seen that comes halfway close to capturing the urgency of the occasion.
It’s a dire situation. Perhaps there will be enough of a swell of anger to have GOP phones start ringing.
So can all of these purged employees file for unemployment just like in the private sector? I'm not clear on that. And won't unemployment numbers spike? Trump seems to have competed in the past with Democratic presidents on how many jobs he created but now he's doing the exact opposite...Trump: The Job Killer President. Does he think they'll all go to work in the fields to replace the migrants he's deporting?
They can try. They have purportedly been fired for unspecified “performance,” which may deny them coverage in some states.
They can't just claim "fired for cause" without being able to provide evidence or the unemployment coverage will be approved. That's why companies put employees on PIPs and document the hell out of the process before they fire someone.
They are citing performance in the emails employees are being sent. That’s also what will be listed on these people’s SF-52s, which is the form we are issued when separating from civil service and which is the form unemployment offices require of former federal employees to document unemployment.
ridiculous
Here’s proof for anyone who cares
https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/1iozypr/megathread_mass_firing_of_probationary_employees/
I have an entire branch of my family tree who have dedicated their careers to Federal civil service for generations, VA, Dept of Energy and USAID.. Take heart that many people do care about all of them. It's just that there are so many battles being fought at the same time, it's sadly not possible to give all of them the attention they are due.
Thanks for the Reddit Thread. JUST WOW! Everyone should share that!
Share it everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. Learn what is happening to us, and use your voice to demand this illegal purge is halted and reversed.
Just put it on BlueSky…Thank you!
Thank you! We need some old school amplification here.
I think they do give a shit which is why there is lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit
Those lawsuits are being filed by the people being illegally fired.
Again: I understand that people know that Elon Musk has it in for civil servants. What the civil servants need other Americans to know is that he is obliterating our ranks illegally right this very moment. The crisis moment is now.
Came here to say exactly this, JW. We’ve been a federal employee family for 20 years. People in our lives are practically dancing on the graves of civil servants. “He’s finally draining the corrupt swamp!”
My office lost about 10% of its staff today. Every one of them was an amazing hard worker who was damn good at their job.
My spouse is probationary in another department. Converted to a federal position after being in literally the same role in a contracted position for the last four years. Has a completely unique and valuable skillset within their office. It’s only a matter of time before they’re offed. It could have already happened for all I know.
These are our lives. That we worked hard for and earned. We took pay cuts to do this work, and we love what we do. I in particular have a deep commitment to the ideal of civil service. Walking around DC wearing this doofy PIV card on a lanyard around my neck is my literal childhood dream. And the neighborhood bully is frying us like ants under a magnifying glass while the other kids gather around and laugh.
I will continue to speak up for the civil service here. You are unsung heroes.
Thank you, Jay. I am sure you will be able to articulate the illegality of these mass firings more cogently and succinctly than I.
Many thousands of families have had their lives irreparably damaged, sometimes destroyed, since Thursday afternoon. I continue to worry that the public doesn’t appreciate the immensity of what has unfolded. (For starters, the fact that most of the press that I can find tends to call these firings “lay offs” is quite discouraging in this regard.)
I don’t intend in anyway to belittle the import of what is happening regarding the Eric Adams case and the courage of these DOJ lawyers. They are my fellow feds, and I’m proud of them beyond telling. (And can’t help but wonder if the ongoing massacre of the rest of us might have been arrested had a few departmental HR heads taken the oaths they swore half as seriously and resigned publicly rather than cravenly allowed for the firing of thousands, which they know to be blatantly illegal.) But Sassoon, Scotten, and the others face much better odds of paying their March mortgage than does the wage grade facilities maintenance guy I work with who was just fired. He needs someone shouting his story from the rooftops too.
I know human stories have impact in a way that “XYZ illegally fired from Department ABC” just don’t. I am certain that if you approach the folks at the fed worker subreddits and ask for their stories, you’ll have people willing to share about the impact. (Leading with a Signal contact would help. Folks are rightly scared of bad actors.)
I am so very sorry. This is just devastating and completely wrong.
Good luck to you. Hopefully you’ll survive.
I’m not probationary, so I will survive this round of cullings.
We should be honoring your work and your family not disparaging you. It’s so shameful. Thank you for your commitment. I’m so sorry this is happening.
I know in Michigan at least where I worked under a union contract, probationary employees could be let go without cause. Is that what is going on in the federal government?
No. Federal employees serve a probationary period of between one and three years, depending on what type of position they have. (There may be positions with longer probations, but I’m not familiar with them.) This is for folks new to the civil service as well as established people taking new jobs in certain cases.
Probationary employees can be fired for two reasons:
1. For conditions “arising before [their] appointment.” Essentially, this means if they realize you lied on your application or hid something about yourself that would have made you unqualified for the position.
2. For performance. In my agency at least, firing a probationary employee for performance isn’t as simple as saying, “You’re a bad performer, so you’re gone.” There’s still a process, although it’s essentially a series of hoops the supervisor must jump through.
Depending on whether your position is “competitive” or “excepted” (terms that describe the way you were hired— you can read up on these if you’d like), you have some limited appeal options regarding #1, as well as if you were fired due to your being in a protected class or because of your political affiliations.
Now, the problem comes in WRT firings for performance. These are not open to appeal, and probationary employees are not due any advanced notice or time to improve their performance. (IE a performance improvement plan—government speak for what’s often called “being put on probation” in the private sector).
And that is what is ostensibly happening right now. Somehow, many thousands of employees have been found to be underperforming on the very same day and are being fired via identical emails without any specifics at all. Their first-line supervisors have not been consulted. No documentation of their supposed underperformance has been provided. Many of these people have, in fact, received superlative performance reviews. (Remember: some probationary folks have been here over a year, and many agencies use quarterly evaluations, so even many people of quite short tenure have had ample time to have their deficiencies documented.) These directives are rolling down from Department headquarters, with identical language being used throughout the government. That this is an attempt at an illegal mass firing is apparent, but they are counting on the insertion of “performance” into these transparently illegal firings to cover their asses.
We will see if they are successful. But given the lack of public attention, to say nothing of outcry, I’m not hopeful that they’ll fail to slide this one past the public.
This is happening because, while probationary employees have some protections, they have far fewer than those who have achieved tenure. Probationary employees are only the first. They will not be the last.
Trump signed a little noticed Executive Order on Tuesday night dictating these firings and ordering all departments to prepare for wide scale reductions in force (RIFs). RIFs are complicated and confusing, but the manner in which this is being implemented is, to say the least, highly irregular. They are supposed to be in response to budgetary constraints and instigated at Congress’s instruction. They are also generally done within a certain agency, or even a certain geographical area. They are NOT a tool to get around the laws protecting the nonpartisan, merit-based civil service to enact sweeping removals of civil servants that the president doesn’t personally like.
I know the civil service isn’t sexy, and it’s fun to bitch about the IRS or the Social Security Administration. But Forest Service just fired all its probationary firefighters. Rural residents are going to die with these people gone. The National Nuclear Security Administration, which is charged with keeping our nuclear arsenal safe, just fired all its probationary employees. We could ALL die with these people gone. No one is so credulous as to think that every single one of these people was unqualified and that was just discovered on Thursday afternoon.
The cuts are everywhere and they are indiscriminate. This has NOTHING to do with any legal cause for removal of probationary employees. It is explicitly, obviously, glaringly illegal.
I can attest it’s happening at DoD today, as well. The lack of public outcry is beyond disheartening. I’ve been trying to sound the alarm for a few weeks. I just had a baby, and the panic level in our household is palpable.
We need to make some noise about this obviously. With all the R driven chaos, people are overwhelmed. But I will share on my social media and encourage others to do the same.
Sending USDA hugs your way. I can’t imagine the added fear with a newborn. One of my probationary colleagues who was fired gave birth to her first child two weeks ago. I’ve never felt more alone. I can’t understand why no one is prioritizing our stories. I’ve been bathed in a vat of cortisol for weeks. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat (I’ve lost over five pounds since 1/20), I can’t focus.
Just got news from my husband, who’s probational at NIH. Looks like it’ll be official for him in about an hour.
Our lives are being destroyed because of absolutely nothing we’ve done or could have done.
Please DM me if you’d ever like to talk, either here or over coffee if you’re also in the DMV. We really are in this phase of it alone, which means it’s all the more important we stick together.
This is horrendous. I heard about the Forest Service and National Park Service employees yesterday. I understand this isn't being amplied enouogh but there is also sooooo much going on all at once it all can't be amplified. This is all by design unfortunately. Hoping for it to all be rectified and soon!
Once he owns the civil service, that’s the whole game.
https://open.substack.com/pub/contrarian/p/evening-roundup-another-front-opens?r=ap54k&utm_medium=ios
Perhaps I’m missing something, but I see nothing here about the illegal purge of probationary employees.
Can I post?
Do you mean post about my message? Please do. Share this everywhere.
I must report great news out of New Mexico. I've been calling our Attorney General to bring state charges against Musk for over a week.
Dateline Feb 13: Albuquerque, NM – Today, Attorney General Raúl Torrez, along with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and 11 other states, announced the filing of a lawsuit challenging the unlawful delegation of executive power to Elon Musk. The lawsuit argues that President Trump has violated the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution by creating a new federal Department without Congressional approval and by granting Musk sweeping powers over the entire federal government without seeking the advice and consent of the Senate.
https://nmdoj.gov/press-release/new-mexico-attorney-general-raul-torrez-leads-landmark-multistate-lawsuit-to-stop-elon-musks-unconstitutional-power-grab/
and on MSNBC this morning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwPz0rQB31Y
NY Gov. Hokul needs to remove Adams as mayor STAT. He is corrupt to the core.
I was a journalist during the Watergate years, and the Saturday Night Massacre was signal in displaying Nixon's disregard and disrespect for the law. Trump's obvious corruption is exponentially worse.
I’m not sure why this is a problem for Bondi and Company as you say. They just got rid of professional, upstanding attorneys in one swoop and will replace them with hacks who will surely follow orders from the WH.
The hacks can try but there may not be enough of them, and the hackier they are, the more blunders they will make in defending against the gazillion lawsuits brought against the regime, and the more likely they are to be disbarred too.
Yes, the incompetence of Trump’s attorneys defending him will become the incompetence of the DOJ defending the administration against the many lawsuits being filed against its illegal actions.
That's exactly what I was thinking. They clearly don't care about competence, all they want are loyal goons.
My thought exactly.
And YET AGAIN it is a woman who has shown courage, integrity, and the presence of a strong backbone. Add her name to the Honor Roll that includes Liz, Shaye, Ruby, Olivia, Sarah and Cassidy.
'Government' by gangsters... Good Fellas meet The Sopranos. This mess is all down to our utter and total dependence on elected officials to obey norms. tRump has been a high-priced mobster his whole adult life (and a juvenile delinquent before that). We have no legal way to rid ourselves of a rogue president in the short term.
Wild hare of a question: could the American Bar Association just start disbarring lawyers working for Trump's DoJ whenever they go before a judge making these patently unconstitutional and time-wasting arguments? Aren't there penalties for you as a lawyer if you are dangerously disingenuous in your representation of a case? Or are so grossly incompetent and obstructive in your filings/arguments that you're frivolously wasting the Court's time and efforts? Because all of the legal arguments coming out of Trump's DoJ are so poorly executed, you'd think that the ABA could enforce some base level of professional competence over Trump's lawyers until he literally just runs out of lawyers to run the affairs of the DoJ. I mean, they are not making valid legal arguments, they're literally pitching illegal ideas against the wall. Isn't there some kind of penalty for that?
But excellent idea. I am willing to bet some efforts are underway in the states. Lawyers are a small community, even in a big place.
The ABA is a voluntary organization, it doesn’t have this power. The state bar associations are the mandatory ones that discipline lawyers in their jurisdictions.
The general population doesn’t have the time or the attention span to understand the significance of Sassoon resigning. Is this even on the public’s radar??
This! I had the same thought when I was reading. This is appalling to those who follow politics, but the average American would probably scoff and go back to trying to make ends meet for their family. They literally do not have time or resources to care about this. It sucks, but right now that's how it is.
Sadly true. 😞 I fear this is not in the radar of the average voter.
I'd love to see this case as a "stunning and significant national case of embarrassment for the Justice Department" as Jay writes. However, I'm guessing that only a tiny percentage of Americans know who Eric Adams or Pam Bondi are and have no clue about this case.
What will embarrass DOJ and Trump-Musk are thousands of people on the street protesting their flagrant corruption and lawlessness. Protest rallies and marches across the country are planned for President's Day on Monday, February 17. Check w/ Mobilize.org or Indivisible.org to see if there's one near you. If there's not, start one. A few people with signs is a protest!
Be sure to keep the pressure on Congress. Call your senators and representatives daily to demand they protect the rule of law and our democracy. Ask for a written response. Stay polite. Thank them for their work if it's deserved. If their D.C. phones are busy, call a Congressional office in your state. If you can't call, email them through their websites. USE YOUR VOICE.
Judges do read the news and even the right-wing ones likely have at least some self-respect (except for sycophantic scum like Cannon), and don’t want to be complicit in obvious political corruption.
That’s what we the people can do. Don’t yell at our leaders unless you’re doing your part.