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A top federal watchdog who challenged his termination last month as head of the government’s independent whistleblower agency said Thursday that he is dropping his lawsuit against President Donald Trump.
Hampton Dellinger, who was head of the Office of Special Counsel, announced his decision to end his legal fight in a statement obtained by NBC News.
Dellinger dropped his legal challenge hours after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., allowed him to be removed as his case moved forward. A lower court had found that Dellinger’s termination by Trump was “unlawful.”
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In his statement, Dellinger said he disagreed with the federal appeals court ruling, arguing “their willingness to sign off on my ouster — even if presented as possibly temporary — immediately erases the independence Congress provided for my position, a vital protection that has been accepted as lawful for nearly fifty years.”
Still, Dellinger said he would “Abide by it. That’s what Americans do.” Given Wednesday’s ruling, he said the odds of “ultimately prevailing before the Supreme Court are long.”
“The harm to the agency and those who rely on it caused by a Special Counsel who is not independent could be immediate, grievous, and, I fear, uncorrectable,” said Dellinger, adding that his position would be filled by “someone totally beholden to the President.”
Dellinger was appointed by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term, which began last March.
He sued several Trump administration officials last month, arguing that his dismissal violated a federal law that says the president can remove special counsels only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
“I was going to follow and enforce the rules like an honest referee would even if some might perceive it as against the interests of certain individuals including the President,” Dellinger said Thursday.
In earlier legal proceedings, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on its bid to immediately fire Dellinger.
However, the court declined to immediately act because lower court proceedings were moving quickly. As a result, the Supreme Court prevented Trump from firing Dellinger.
“My fight to stay on the job was not for me, but rather for the ideal that OSC should be as Congress intended: an independent watchdog and a safe, trustworthy place for whistleblowers to report wrongdoing and be protected from retaliation,” Dellinger said Thursday.
Chloe Atkins reports for the NBC News Investigative Unit, based in New York. She frequently covers crime and courts.
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