Clinton-appointed judge orders Trump to 'immediately' rehire fired workers

On Thursday, a judge ordered the Trump administration to "immediately" rehire tens of thousands of probationary employees terminated from six federal agencies.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, called the Office of Personnel Management's decision to lay off the federal workers "unlawful," a "sham," and a "gimmick," Politico reported. He insisted that President Donald Trump's administration had circumvented legal requirements by arguing the terminations were performance-based, which he claimed was not the case.

'The Government has engaged in an illegal scheme spanning broad swaths of the federal workforce.'

"It is a sad, sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that's a lie," Alsup stated.

He demanded that the Departments of Defense, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs rehire the probationary employees. Yet, Alsup also noted that the agencies have the authority to implement "reductions in force."

"The words that I give you today should not be taken that some wild-and-crazy judge in San Francisco said that an administration cannot engage in a reduction in force," Alsup said. "It can be done, if it's done in accordance with the law."

During a Thursday hearing, Alsup accused the DOJ's legal team of being "afraid" to have individuals cross-examined because it "would reveal the truth."

"I tend to doubt that you're telling me the truth," the judge said. "I'm tired of seeing you stonewall on trying to get at the truth."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelsey Helland insisted that the directive to terminate the employees "was not an order by OPM."

"Everybody knew the new administration was prioritizing this and the political appointments wanted to comply with that administration priority," Helland explained.

The Government Executive reported that the judge's rehire order impacts roughly 24,000 probationary workers who were fired last month.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Alsup of "attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch."

"The President has the authority to exercise the power of the entire executive branch — singular district court judges cannot abuse the power of the entire judiciary to thwart the President's agenda," Leavitt remarked. "If a federal district court judge would like executive powers, they can try and run for president themselves."

The DOJ filed a notice to appeal.

On Thursday evening, a second federal judge, U.S. District Judge James Bredar, issued a temporary restraining order, calling for more than a dozen federal agencies to temporarily reinstate terminated workers.

The judge wrote, "In this case, the government conducted massive layoffs, but it gave no advance notice. It claims it wasn't required to because, it says, it dismissed each one of these thousands of probationary employees for 'performance' or other individualized reasons."

"On the record before the Court, this isn't true. There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively," he added.

The Trump administration has terminated approximately 200,000 probationary employees across the federal government.

"When, as is likely the case here, the Government has engaged in an illegal scheme spanning broad swaths of the federal workforce, it is inevitable that the remediation of that scheme will itself be a significant task," Bredar stated.

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