A Key Official Is Trying to Weasel Out of Testifying About Trump’s Mass Firings. Good Luck!

Slate is offering six months of Slate Plus to current and recently laid-off federal government employees. He has given just one public interview during his tenure, to byFaith, “the magazine of the Presbyterian Church in America.” In it, Ezell described a life steeped in devout Christianity, and analogized his rise at OPM to how “Joseph must have felt when he found himself to be second in command in Egypt.” He also described intense public criticism of his actions at the agency, which “forced me to turn to God in ways I’ve never had to before.” What Ezell did not mention to byFaith is that, as acting director of OPM, he is the face of Trump’s purge of the federal civil service. Multiple agency managers later attested that OPM expressly directed them to terminate almost every “probationer,” sparing only a small number who were “mission-critical.” As one agency told its employees, “there’s no negotiation” and “no limited discretion”: OPM mandated the near-universal termination of probationers, and agencies had no power to push back. To support this assertion, the Justice Department offered a single piece of evidence: a declaration from Charles Ezell, filed under penalty of perjury, stating that “OPM did not direct agencies to terminate probationary employees.” Judge Alsup didn’t buy it. It is noteworthy that Ezell has since revised the notorious Jan. 20 memo to say that agencies have “ultimate decisionmaking authority” over probationers, a statement that contradicts OPM’s previous instructions to agencies.