Trump illegally removed member of board that protects government employees, judge rules
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump unlawfully removed a member of a federal office that protects government employees from partisan interference, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras granted a permanent injunction reinstating Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board, delivering the Trump administration another legal defeat as they attempt to reshape the federal workforce.
Contreras found that Harris’ removal broke the law because Trump failed to provide cause for her removal when the White House communicated last month that her role had been terminated in a one-sentence, late-night email. Contreras noted that Harris had actually been “efficient and effective” in her role, clearing the board’s massive 3,800-case backlog.
“Because the President did not indicate that he sought to remove Harris for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office, his attempt to terminate her was unlawful and exceeded the scope of his authority,” Contreras wrote.
Harris, the board’s chairman, was nominated by then-President Joe Biden in January 2022 for a term not set to expire until March 2028. She was confirmed by the Senate in May 2022. Contreras’ ruling says Harris must now remain in the role through the end of her term, unless she is removed for cause.
The board only consists of three members, with the law stating no more than two can be from the same political party. In removing Harris, Trump had announced the Republican member, Henry Kerner, would take over the role as chair. Raymond Limon, also a Democrat like Harris, served as vice chair until he resigned last week on the final day of his term.
Trump’s attempt to remove Harris comes as the Merit System Protection Board — a little-known office that protects federal employees from abuses by management and prohibited practices — grows in significance as the Trump administration slashes thousands of federal employees. Some judges have turned down lawsuits by noting that the correct avenue for the employees’ claims would be the Merit System Protection Board, rather than a federal court.
On Saturday, another federal judge issued a permanent injunction reinstating special counsel Hampton Dellinger, who was similarly removed without cause by the Trump administration.
Newly sworn in Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem participates in an immigration enforcement operation in New York City, Jan. 28, 2025. (DHS)
(NEW YORK) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined an immigration enforcement operation in New York City on Tuesday.
Noem posted a brief video of an arrest to her social media account.
The secretary is witnessing both criminal and civil enforcement operations, according to sources familiar with the actions in New York.
The criminal case involves a member of a Venezuelan gang that took over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, the sources said. One alleged gang member was arrested in the Bronx.
The New York division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said it was working with partners at the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to assist the Department of Homeland Security with enforcement efforts.
Noem’s appearance for the operations came just days after she was confirmed by the Senate.
Noem, the former governor of South Dakota, will be charged with overseeing Trump’s immigration crackdown along with “border czar” Tom Homan.
“The Trump Administration will once-again empower our brave men and women in law enforcement to do their jobs and remove criminal aliens and illegal gangs from our country,” she said in a statement after her confirmation. “We will fully equip our intelligence and law enforcement to detect and prevent terror threats and will deliver rapid assistance and disaster relief to Americans in crisis.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Friday is set to award the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, to seven U.S. Army veterans for heroism during the Korean War and Vietnam War.
The Medal of Honor is awarded to those who “distinguish themselves conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their own lives above and beyond the call of duty,” according to the White House.
“The meritorious conduct must involve great personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual above his or her comrades and must have involved risk of life,” it said ahead of the White House ceremony taking place just under three weeks before Biden leaves office.
Five of the recipients were killed in battle. Among the two who survived and being honored is Korean War veteran Richard Cavazos, who became the first Hispanic four-star general for the Army.
Cavazos, who has since died, is receiving the Medal of Honor for heroism when fighting as a first lieutenant in the Korean War, for which he previously received the Distinguished Service Cross.
“He was a man of deep faith who loved his country, loved his family, loved his soldiers, and it was that love, that selfless love of which there’s no greater love that drove him up the hill that night in 1953 to collect the men of his company and get them to safety,” his son Tommy Cavazos told reporters ahead of the ceremony.
Richard Cavazos was ordered to withdraw his troops while fighting under intense enemy fire and brought his troops to safety, according to the Army. However, he remained on the battlefield alone and found five wounded men, evacuating them one by one. He then returned to the battlefield to search for missing soldiers, leading at least two groups of men who had been separated from the main fighting force to safety.
“He firmly believed that the Army provided the opportunity for ordinary citizens to raise their hands, take their oaths and do the extraordinary job of protecting this country,” Tommy Cavazos added.
On May 9, 2023, Fort Hood in Texas was renamed Fort Cavazos as part of a broader Biden administration effort to rename military installations named after Confederate generals.
“Gen. Cavazos was known around the Army as a battle proven warrior,” Lt. Gen. Sean Bernabe, commanding general of III Armored Corps, said at the time. “Let his name and all that it represents inspire us all every single day to live up to his legacy.”
Pfc. Charles R. Johnson, Cpl. Fred B. McGee, Pfc. Wataru Nakamura and Pvt. Bruno R. Orig will also be honored for actions in the Korean War, while Capt. Hugh R. Nelson Jr. and Pfc. Kenneth J. David will be honored for actions in the Vietnam War.
David, who also previously received the Distinguished Service Cross, is the only recipient still alive. He is being awarded for gallantry in a 1970 battle in which he helped his team of 14 soldiers push back hundreds of North Vietnamese troops.
On May 7, 1970, David exited his platoon’s defense perimeter and repeatedly drew attention toward himself after an initial enemy assault that mortally wounded his platoon leader and several other service members, according to the Army.
“Surrounded on three sides by the larger enemy force, he engaged them with his rifle and hand grenades,” the White House said in its press release. “When the enemy attempted to concentrate their fire on the wounded, Private First Class David jumped from his position and yelled to draw the fire back to himself.”
Though wounded in the attack, he continued to draw enemy fire away from his platoon so the wounded could be evacuated, denying aid for himself until all others were safe.
“It was not until the last helicopter was landing that he retreated from his position in front of the perimeter and continued laying down fire until finally being evacuated himself,” the White House added.
ABC News’ Matt Seyler and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The battle between New York federal prosecutors and President Donald Trump’s Justice Department continued Friday as another prosecutor resigned over the order to dismiss Mayor Eric Adams’ bribery case.
Hagan Scotten, the assistant United States attorney for Southern District of New York, blasted Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove in a letter one day after acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon resigned over her refusal to follow through with the Justice Department’s request.
“In short, the first justification for the motion — that [former U.S. Attorney] Damian Williams’s role in the case somehow tainted a valid indictment supported by ample evidence, and pursued under different U.S. attorneys is so weak as to be transparently pretextual,” Scotten wrote.
“The second justification is worse. No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives,” he added.
Scotten, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and clerked under Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh before he was appointed to the Supreme Court, chastised the president and the administration.
“I can even understand how a Chief Executive whose background is in business and politics might see the contemplated dismissal-with-leverage as a good, if distasteful, deal,” he wrote.
“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me,” he added.
The letter came hours after what several former and current federal justice officials dubbed the “Thursday afternoon massacre,” when six people involved with the case resigned and pushed back against the U.S. attorney general’s office.
Sassoon resigned Thursday over the Justice Department’s request to end the federal bribery case against the mayor.
The Justice Department planned to remove the prosecutors handling the mayor’s case and reassign it to the Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C.
However, as soon the Public Integrity Section was informed it would be taking over, John Keller, the acting head of the unit, and his boss, Kevin Driscoll, the most senior career official in the criminal division, resigned along with three other members of the unit, according to multiple sources.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the power to remove Adams from office, called the Department of Justice’s moves “unbelievably unprecedented” during an interview on MSNBC Thursday night.
“This is not supposed to happen in our system of justice,” she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Hochul, however, declined to discuss the possibility of removing the mayor.
“The allegations are extremely concerning and serious. But I cannot, as the governor of this state, have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction, like a lot of other people are saying right now,” she said. “I have to do it smart, what’s right, and I’m consulting with other leaders in government at this time.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime ally of Adams, said in a statement Tuesday that he was convening with other Black clergy to discuss the situation but he already raised concerns about the mayor’s allegiances.
“President Trump is holding the mayor hostage,” Sharpton said.
Four prominent New York City Black clergy members — the Revs. Johnnie Green, Kevin McCall, Carl L. Washington and Adolphus Lacey — wrote a letter Wednesday calling on the mayor not to run for reelection this year.
“Eric Adams had every right to prove his innocence and many of us were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but that’s not what has happened,” they wrote.
Adams, a former NYPD officer and Democrat who previously registered as a Republican, was accused by federal prosecutors of taking lavish flights and hotel stays from Turkish businessmen and officials for more than a decade.
He and his staff members also allegedly received straw campaign donations to become eligible for New York City’s matching funds program for his campaigns, according to the criminal indictment that was issued in September.
In exchange, Adams allegedly used his power as Brooklyn borough president and later as mayor to give the foreign conspirators preferential treatment for various projects and proposals, including permits for the Turkish consulate despite fire safety concerns, the indictment said.
Adams pleaded not guilty, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed without any basis that he was being politically targeted by the Biden administration, even though the probe covers many years before Biden was in office.
Adams’ primary opponents have called for him to step down since the indictment, as have other New York Democrats, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The mayor, however, appeared on “Fox and Friends” on Friday with Trump “border czar” Thomas Homan and reiterated he was not only staying in office but he would run for reelection as a Democrat. The deadline to change parties is Friday.
“People had me gone months ago, but, you know what, I’m sitting on your couch,” Adams told the hosts.
The mayor remained silent during the interview when Homan discussed Trump’s deportation policy and called on Hochul to resign for not cooperating with the federal office.
Adams, however, did light up and smile when the “border czar” discussed their partnership. The mayor announced Thursday the city would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into Rikers Island jail, a major shift in the city’s policies.
“If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City, and we won’t be sitting on the couch,” Homan said with a laugh. “I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?'”
Sassoon prosecutor warned in a letter that the close relationship between the Trump administration and Adams crossed a line.
In her letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sassoon repeatedly suggested Justice Department leadership, including Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, was explicitly aware of a quid pro quo that was suggested by Adams’ attorneys.
Sassoon alleged Adams’ vocal support of Trump’s immigration policies would be boosted by dismissing the indictment against him.
Sassoon’s letter detailed a January meeting with Bove and counsel for the mayor, where she says Adams’ attorneys put forward “what amounted to a quid pro quo,” after which Bove “admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting’s conclusion.”
“Although Mr. Bove disclaimed any intention to exchange leniency in this case for Adams’s assistance in enforcing federal law, that is the nature of the bargain laid bare in Mr. Bove’s memo,” Sassoon wrote in her letter.
Bove accused Sassoon of insubordination and rejected her claims. Trump told reporters Thursday he was not involved with the Justice Department decisions this week and claimed the SDNY prosecutor was fired, although he did not name her.
Adams also denied the allegations Friday.
“It took her three weeks to report in front of her a criminal action. Come on, this is silly,” he told the “Fox and Friends” hosts.
The dismissal, which is without prejudice, meaning it can be brought again, specifically after the November election, according to Bove’s request, has yet to be formally filed in court or reviewed by a judge.
ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
