‘Court will have to decide the sanction’: Judge orders Trump DOJ to produce OPM head for testimony in mass firings case or face his wrath as legal showdown looms

President Donald Trump at a press conference at the White House in Washington on February 27, 2025 (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Sipa USA; via AP Images)

President Donald Trump at a press conference at the White House in Washington on Feb. 27, 2025 (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Sipa USA; via AP Images)

A federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to produce Charles Ezell, the acting director of the Office of Personnel and Management, for testimony in the ongoing OPM mass firings case, just days after the Justice Department allegedly claimed Ezell wouldn’t be made available to testify — or face his wrath in court.

“If Ezell does not appear in violation of that order, then the Court will have to decide the sanction, including whether or not to strike or limit his sworn declaration,” warned U.S. District Judge William Alsup in a Monday order.

Ezell, appointed by Trump to be acting director after he took office in January, is accused of unlawfully firing thousands of government workers still in the probationary period of their employment. The judge had previously ordered Ezell to appear in court on Thursday to testify, but the plaintiffs suing the OPM — five labor unions and five nonprofit organizations — said in court filings last week that they believed DOJ’s Civil Division was not going to let Ezell take the stand. On Monday, those fears came to fruition as DOJ lawyers filed a motion to vacate the upcoming evidentiary hearing and preclude Ezell’s testimony.

Alsup said in his ruling that he sided against the request to have Ezell skate testimony because he had already submitted a sworn declaration supporting the defendants’ position. The government argued in its motion that “the March 13 evidentiary hearing and any depositions are unnecessary in light of OPM’s compliance with the TRO and [their] willingness to convert the Court’s TRO into a preliminary injunction.” But Alsup, a Bill Clinton appointee, pointed out how things have changed since he first granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) last month halting any additional firings.

“The problem is that plaintiffs seek broader relief than was provided by the TRO now in place,” the judge explained. “So, even if the Court must rule based solely on the record submitted during the TRO proceeding, it will do so, on or shortly after the March 13 hearing.”

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In their Monday motion, DOJ lawyers urged the court to let Ezell avoid testifying because doing so would “inappropriately intrude on the workings of a coordinate branch of government and pose avoidable and unnecessary separation-of-powers concerns.” Alsup said he felt this argument fell short, too.

“The problem here is that Acting Director Ezell submitted a sworn declaration in support of defendants’ position, but now refuses to appear to be cross examined, or to be deposed (despite, it should be added, government counsel’s embrace of that very idea during the TRO hearing),” the judge said.

The mass firings case was brought forward last month by the labor unions and nonprofit organizations, which filed a 34-page complaint accusing Ezell of ordering federal agencies across the country to terminate thousands of employees “by sending them standardized notices of termination, drafted by OPM, that falsely state that the terminations are for performance reasons.” Plaintiffs argue that Congress, not OPM, is what controls federal employment and that the legislature had already determined that each agency is responsible for managing and terminating employees.

“OPM lacks the constitutional, statutory, or regulatory authority to order federal agencies to terminate employees in this fashion that Congress has authorized those agencies to hire and manage, and certainly has no authority to require agencies to perpetrate a massive fraud on the federal workforce by lying about federal workers’ ‘performance,’ to detriment of those workers, their families, and all those in the public and private sectors who rely upon those workers for important services,” the complaint states.

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On Monday, DOJ lawyers claimed it was “good cause” that ultimately supported their request to vacate the evidentiary hearing and stop Ezell from testifying.

“OPM has already substantially complied with the Court’s TRO by promptly updating its guidance to agencies, thus obviating the necessity (or at minimum reducing the value) of any evidentiary hearing, and thereby also eliminating the need for the discovery Plaintiffs seek in connection with that hearing,” the DOJ said in its motion. “At the same time, Defendants’ willingness to stipulate to conversion of the TRO into a preliminary injunction further eliminates any need for or benefit from such a hearing — and, at minimum, eliminates any need to proceed on a highly expedited timetable.”

A Texas native who lived in Georgia before moving to Washington to work for Trump, Ezell is described in recent articles by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the evangelical news outlet byFaith as a data analytics expert who previously worked for OPM as a “lead data architect” and “branch chief” for its data and analytics department. It’s unclear how he came across Trump’s radar, according to the Journal-Constitution, with even Ezell himself being surprised by the job offer.

“A few months ago, I got a call from one of the president’s advisors. I assumed it was a headhunter trying to recruit me back to the private sector which happens somewhat regularly,” Ezell told byFaith. “I took the call which led to a series of meetings with representatives from the president’s administration. All the sudden, I was offered the opportunity to serve as the acting director of OPM. I humbly accepted the opportunity to serve America and the president in this way.”

Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.

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‘Court will have to decide the sanction’: Judge orders Trump DOJ to produce OPM head for testimony in mass firings case or face his wrath as legal showdown looms

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‘Court will have to decide the sanction’: Judge orders Trump DOJ to produce OPM head for testimony in mass firings case or face his wrath as legal showdown looms

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