"While administrative stays are more common in appellate courts, district courts have recognized their applicability in cases seeking emergency relief—including in this District," U.S. District Senior Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote in a minute order temporarily reinstating Hampton Dellinger as special counsel of the Office of Special Counsel.

A federal judge has reinstated the head of a federal ethics agency after President Donald Trump tried to quietly fire him, marking the latest in a series of illegal terminations attempted by the Trump administration.

The head of the federal agency that seeks to protect whistleblowers has filed a lawsuit saying he was illegally fired by President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump has fired the federal government’s top ethics official as well as the leader of the agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers.

A federal judge has ordered Hampton Dellinger to be reinstated as head of the Office of Special Counsel while a court fight continues over his removal by President Donald Trump.

His termination comes as Trump’s Republican administration is testing the limits of well-established civil service protections by moving to dismantle federal agencies and push out staffers.

Hampton Dellinger, who was the head of the Office of Special Counsel at the Justice Department, is fighting back with a lawsuit.

Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, the head of an independent federal agency that protects whistleblowers, filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday alleging that U.S. President Donald Trump's "purported" dismissal of him via email on Friday is unlawful and ignores for cause removal protections that Dellinger is entitled to.

President Trump late Friday fired the leader of an office designed to protect government whistleblowers, a detail revealed in a Monday lawsuit from the head of the Office of the Special Counsel (OSC).