WASHINGTON — It was late afternoon on the final Friday in June, and Assistant U.S. Lawyer Mike Gordon was in his workplace in Tampa, Florida, interviewing a sufferer for an upcoming trial by way of Zoom.
Alongside a particular agent, Gordon was making ready the sufferer to be a witness in a Justice Division case in opposition to a lawyer who the Justice Division alleged had been scamming shoppers.
There was a knock on the door, Gordon later instructed NBC Information, and he didn’t reply; on the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace within the Center District of Florida, there was a tradition of not simply popping in when the door is closed. However the door popped open, and there stood the workplace supervisor, ashen-faced.
The workplace supervisor is answerable for safety, and Gordon thought for a second that one thing might need occurred to his household. Gordon muted the Zoom name, and the workplace supervisor handed him a chunk of paper.
It was a one-page letter signed by Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi. He’d been terminated from federal service.
“No clarification. No advance warning. No description of what the trigger was,” Gordon stated in an interview. “Now, I knew why. I knew it needed to be my Jan. 6 work.”
Gordon had been senior trial counsel within the Capitol Siege Part of the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Washington, which prosecuted alleged rioters concerned within the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. His title mirrored a few of the high-profile circumstances he’d taken on in the course of the Jan. 6 investigation and the position he performed in serving to different federal prosecutors.
On the time of his firing, Gordon had lengthy been engaged on different circumstances again house in Florida. He had just lately been assigned to co-lead a case in opposition to two individuals accused of stealing greater than $100 million from a medical belief for individuals with disabilities, in addition to injured staff and retirees. Simply two days earlier than he was fired, he’d acquired an “excellent” score on his efficiency overview.
Now, together with two different just lately fired Justice Division staff, Gordon is pushing again, suing the Trump administration late Thursday over their dismissals. The go well with argues that the conventional procedures federal staff are anticipated to undergo to deal with their grievances — the Benefit Methods Safety Board — are basically damaged due to the Trump administration’s actions.
MSPB is a quasi-judicial physique that’s meant to settle disputes between staff and their businesses, however the go well with argues it “can not operate as meant” due to President Donald Trump’s firing of MSPB member Cathy Harris. A federal court docket issued a everlasting injunction reinstating Harris, however the Supreme Courtroom stayed the injunction, permitting Harris’ removing. Now the MSPB lacks a quorum to vote on any petitions for overview, whereas MSPB administrative judges are “overwhelmed” due to the federal government’s termination of hundreds of federal staff.
Gordon filed the lawsuit alongside Patricia Hartman, who was a prime spokesperson for the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Columbia, and Joseph Tirrell, who was director of the Departmental Ethics Workplace, earlier than the Trump administration dismissed them this yr. Tirrell, an FBI and Navy veteran, had 19 years of federal civil service, together with six years of navy service, when he was fired.
Hartman, who had labored for varied Justice Division parts for nearly twenty years, oversaw information releases and media responses associated to the Jan. 6 prosecutions, which was the most important investigation in FBI historical past, involving greater than 1,500 defendants.
“I used to be by no means given a proof for my termination,” Hartman instructed NBC Information. “Primarily based on my efficiency opinions, which have all the time been excellent, I’ve to imagine that one thing else was driving this. The underside line is that this, in my thoughts, quantities to psychological terrorism. You might be eradicating individuals who had been good or wonderful at their jobs with no clarification.”
The attorneys on the lawsuit are Abbe Lowell, Norm Eisen, Heidi Burakiewicz and Mark Zaid, a whistleblower lawyer who has been focused by the Trump administration, which stripped his safety clearance after Trump named him in an government order. Zaid has since sued.
The brand new administration has fired roughly 200 Justice Division staff, in accordance with Justice Connection, a corporation that was set as much as assist Justice Division staff.
“The best way through which these staff have been terminated looks as if a fairly clear violation of the Civil Service Safety Act and basic constitutional due course of protections, and it has been destabilizing for the workforce, as a result of no one is aware of when they’ll be subsequent,” stated Stacy Younger, a former Justice Division worker. “I hear from staff on a regular basis who inform me they get up within the morning terrified that as we speak shall be their day. It feels to a number of them like psychological warfare.”
Gordon was fired the identical day two different Jan. 6 prosecutors had been fired final month. He’d began out as a state prosecutor in New York Metropolis and started his profession as a federal prosecutor in January 2017, working within the violent crimes and narcotics part. When he noticed what occurred on Jan. 6 and the decision exit throughout the Justice Division for help prosecuting these concerned, he signed up, he instructed NBC Information.
Jason Manning, a former federal prosecutor who labored on Jan. 6 circumstances, as nicely, stated Gordon executed back-to-back trials “flawlessly” and performed a essential position in supporting others within the unit.
“On a big workforce of fantastic and hard-working individuals, Mike actually stood out as a frontrunner on the workforce, as someone who prosecuted a few of the most infamous defendants and a few of the most extremely watched and high-pressure and demanding circumstances,” Manning stated.
Amongst them was the case in opposition to Ray Epps, who was the goal of false conspiracy theories claiming he was a federal authorities plant, earlier than he was ultimately charged by federal prosecutors, who sought to ship him to jail for six months. A choose in the end sentenced Epps to probation, citing the affect the conspiracy theories had on his life.
After Trump turned the Republican presidential nominee final yr, federal prosecutors working the Jan. 6 circumstances knew there was a threat to their work, they usually made darkish jokes about what might occur to them if Trump returned to workplace, a number of sources near the Justice Division have instructed NBC Information. Now, these fears have change into a actuality.
When he returned to workplace, Trump shortly pardoned Jan. 6 defendants en masse, and probationary federal prosecutors who labored on Jan. 6 circumstances had been fired, as had been individuals who labored on particular counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump. Present FBI staff who labored on the Smith and Jan. 6 probes nonetheless surprise what might occur to them down the highway after the Justice Division demanded a listing of staff who labored on these investigations.
“The individuals who volunteered for that element are a few of the greatest, smartest, most proficient attorneys within the nation,” Gordon stated, referring to Jan. 6 prosecutors. “It is not that one way or the other the administration ought to simply pat itself on the again and say, ‘Nice, like, these are all deep state Democrats that we’re driving out.’ That is not what’s occurring. They’re both firing or pushing out a few of the most proficient individuals they’ve.”
