Overview

• Attorney General Pam Bondi terminated Joseph Tirrell as the Justice Department’s senior ethics attorney on July 11 without providing a reason, invoking Article II authority.
• Tirrell led the DOJ’s ethics office since July 2023 and advised top officials on financial disclosures, recusals and conflict-of-interest waivers.
• On the same day, Bondi ousted about 20 other DOJ employees who had worked on Jan. 6 prosecutions and investigations of President Trump under her Weaponization Working Group directives.
• Legal experts and fired staff warn that these actions undermine the department’s institutional checks and compromise independent ethics oversight.
• Tirrell and other dismissed officials have publicly reaffirmed their constitutional oaths and filed ethics complaints alleging politicized interference.