OPM Chief Won’t Testify in Mass Federal Layoffs Challenge (2)

Acting Office of Personnel Management Director Charles Ezell won’t testify at a March 13 hearing in a lawsuit by government employee unions challenging the Trump Administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers, after a federal court ordered him to appear.

In a notice filed Tuesday, the government said that it was withdrawing Ezell’s declaration, making his testimony unnecessary.

“Because the Court’s stated purpose of bringing Mr. Ezell to the hearing was to obtain testimony from him regarding the contentions made in his declaration, Defendants therefore submit that his presence is no longer necessary at any hearing given that this declaration is now withdrawn,” the notice said.

The response from the Department of Justice on Tuesday also added that Ezell’s testimony isn’t necessary “because existing documentary evidence and briefing demonstrates that OPM is not directing agencies to terminate probationary employees.”

Judge William Alsup said late Monday that Ezell must testify because he already submitted a sworn declaration supporting the reduction in force and must now be cross-examined by the unions, rejecting the government’s argument that requiring Ezell’s testimony would violate the separation of powers. Ezell can either appear at the hearing or be deposed, said Alsup who sits in the US District court for the Northern District of California.

The order was a setback for the Trump administration after it objected to its acting personnel chief testifying in federal court. Unions are suing the Trump administration over its dismissal of new federal employees, known as probationary workers. OPM, led by Ezell, is at the center of the terminations.

The administration’s motion asked Alsup to cancel the hearing, rescind the order directing Ezell to testify, and block subpoenas of 12 current and former government employees. It said that OPM would be willing to consent to a preliminary injunction.

But Alsup said that neither his order for Ezell to appear, nor the March 13 hearing would be vacated. He added that if Ezell doesn’t appear, he’ll decide whether sanctions are warranted, “including whether or not to strike or limit his sworn declaration.” But the government employees who didn’t file sworn declarations need not be at the hearing, the judge said.

The lawsuit was filed after Ezell allegedly directed agencies to send the employees standardized letters falsely stating that they were terminated for performance reasons, the complaint said. But the unions said that OPM lacked “constitutional, statutory, or regulatory authority” to order the terminations contrary to congressional wishes “and certainly has no authority to require agencies to perpetrate a massive fraud on the federal workforce by lying about federal workers’ ‘performance.’”

The layoffs also violated the separation of powers and the Administrative Procedures Act, the lawsuit says.

When Alsup blocked the layoffs at a number of federal agencies, he ordered Ezell to appear and testify about the firing memos.

The plaintiffs are American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO; American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO; AFGE Local 1216, and United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals.

Altshuler Berzon LLP and State Democracy Defenders Fund represent the plaintiffs. The US Department of Justice represents OPM.

The case is Am. Fed. of Gov’t Emp. AFL-CIO v. OPM, N.D. Cal., No. 3:25-cv-01780-WHA, notice issued 3/11/25.