The former ethics lawyer said in a post that he was terminated last week.
Attorney General Pam Bondi terminated the head of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) ethics division, according to a letter posted to social media by the fired official.
On Monday, former DOJ ethics division director Joseph Tirrell said in a post on LinkedIn that he had been fired and included a copy of the dismissal letter signed by Bondi. The letter said that it’s an “official notice” showing that he was removed from his position as director of the Departmental Ethics Office, a move that it said was “effective immediately” on July 11.
“Pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States, your employment with the Department of Justice is hereby terminated, and you are removed from federal service effective immediately,” the letter states.
The notice further states that Tirrell has the right to appeal the government’s decision through the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board within 30 days.
“Until Friday evening, I was the senior ethics attorney at the Department of Justice responsible for advising the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General directly on federal employee ethics,” Tirrell wrote in his LinkedIn post. “I was also responsible for the day-to-day operations of the ethics program across the Department.”
Tirrell said that his “public service is not over,” and that his “career as a Federal civil servant is not finished.”
“I look forward to finding ways to continue in my personal calling of service to my country. I encouraged anyone who is reading this to do the same,” he wrote.
His post outlined his resume in the federal government, starting with his time as a Naval officer before he joined the FBI in 2006.
The Departmental Ethics Office that Tirrell led, according to the DOJ’s website, is “responsible for administering the Department-wide ethics program and for implementing Department-wide policies on ethics issues.”
It also “provides advice and training directly to employees in the Department’s Senior Management Offices, the Justice Management Division, the Office of Public Affairs, the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee, the Office of Dispute Resolution, and the Office of Tribal Justice, and supervises the ethics programs in the remaining Department components,” the website says.
