Trump illegally fired surveillance watchdog agency's Democrats, judge rules
Source: Politico
05/21/2025 01:43 PM EDT
President Donald Trump illegally removed two Democratic members of a federal privacy oversight board, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.
Washington-based U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ruled that Trump’s firings of Travis LeBlanc and Ed Felten, two Democratic members on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was unlawful, stating that the board’s structure was intended to have a restriction on the president’s removal power. As a result, Walton ordered that LeBlanc and Felten remain as board members.
“Such unfettered authority would make the Board and its members beholden to the very authority it is supposed to oversee on behalf of Congress and the American people,” Walton, a George W. Bush appointee, said in his ruling. “To hold otherwise would be to bless the President’s obvious attempt to exercise power beyond that granted to him by the Constitution and shield the Executive Branch’s counterterrorism actions from independent oversight, public scrutiny, and bipartisan congressional insight regarding those actions.”
The case could have ramifications beyond the board, extending to the rest of the Trump administration’s control of independent federal agencies.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/21/judge-rules-on-trump-firings-at-surveillance-watchdog-agency-00362379
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