'A sham': Federal judge blasts Trump admin on improper firings of federal workers; orders rehiring
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Why were thousands of federal workers fired by the Trump administration?
Fireworks day today in the news. There's so much to get to. Most importantly, I think, thousands of people fired by Donald Trump are getting their jobs back today because of the first round of proverbial fireworks that went off in a California federal courthouse. And I just, just, just got the transcript of what happened there. Trying all day to get it. Finally got it. I really want to share this with you. All right, so let me set the scene. Trump administration has sent a lawyer to defend them in this case in federal court in Northern California. But they are refusing to send any officials from the Trump administration to testify in this case, to explain what they have done and to be questioned about it.
So the basis of this case is that the Trump White House, the Office of Personnel Management and the Trump White House told federal agencies last month, essentially, to fire tens of thousands of people who work for the government, potentially hundreds of thousands of people. And then after the Trump White House, the Office of Personnel Management, told the agencies to fire all those people, then all those people got fired. And it really does not seem like that was legal. It has never seemed like that was legal, that the White House would have the authority to make those kinds of mass firings. But again, they won't send anybody to testify about what exactly they did. So this is from the transcript. So the lawyer who is suing the Trump administration says this. Your Honor, quote, I tend to agree with you on that. And the government, I believe, has tried to frustrate the judge's ability to get at the truth of what happened here, and then set forth sham declarations to a sham declaration. They withdrew it, then substituted another.
That's not the way it works in the U.S. District Court, the judge says. Quote, I'm going to talk to the government about that in a minute. I had expected to have an evidentiary hearing today in which these people would testify. And if they wanted to get your people on the stand, I was going to make that happen too. It would be fair. But instead, we have been frustrated in that. The judge then says to the lawyer for the plaintiff's quote, I'd like to hear your views on what relief should be issued today. T-O-D-A-Y. Today. The lawyer. Thank you, Your Honor. We are aligned in wanting that to happen as well. He spelled out T-O-D-A-Y. And so then they have a conversation, the judge and the lawyer for the plaintiffs, the lawyer who's suing the Trump administration on behalf of the fired employees. And they talk about what the fired employees who are suing the Trump administration, what they're seeking from the judge today, the kind of relief they want.
They say they want a list of everybody who's been fired that haven't been able to get that or even an enumeration from the government of how many people have been fired. They also want people to be reinstated if they have been fired illegally. So they go through all those details. Then it's time for the Trump administration lawyer to make his side of the case. And he starts explaining to the judge that all these fired workers, the only reason they were fired is because nobody wanted them. Nobody told anybody to fire anything. There was no instructions to fire people. These are just unwanted workers. If anybody wanted them back, they surely would have been rehired by now, right? At which point the judge interjects.
The judge, quote, Well, maybe that's why we need an injunction that tells them to rehire them. You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You are afraid to do so because you know cross-examination would reveal the truth. Trump administration lawyer tries to interject. Respectfully, the judge continues. This is the U.S. District Court. Whenever you submit declarations, those people should be submitted to cross-examination, just like the plaintiff's side should be. And then we get at the truth of whether your story is actually true. I tend to doubt it. I tend to doubt that you are telling me the truth whenever we hear all the evidence eventually.
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