Attorney General Pam Bondi fires top Justice Department ethics official

[ad_1] Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi has fired one of many prime profession officers tasked with advising her and different senior Justice Division officers of their moral obligations, an official acquainted with the dismissal confirmed to ABC Information Monday.

Joseph Tirrell on Monday took to LinkedIn to put up information of his termination, together with a photograph of his termination discover which offered no reasoning for his firing.

"Till Friday night, I used to be the senior ethics lawyer on the Division of Justice liable for advising the Legal professional Normal and Deputy Legal professional Normal instantly on federal worker ethics," Tirrell stated within the put up. "I used to be additionally liable for the day-to-day operations of the ethics program throughout the Division."

The removing letter from Bondi mirrors that of letters despatched to a number of different DOJ staff fired in latest weeks, together with at the very least 20 officers who supported former particular counsel Jack Smith's workforce in his prosecutions of President Donald Trump.

Tirrell didn't reply to a request for remark from ABC Information. A DOJ spokesperson declined to remark when contacted by ABC Information.

Tirrell's put up outlined an intensive resume in public service, starting together with his time as a United States Naval Officer earlier than he joined the FBI in 2006 in varied ethics-related posts.

Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi speaks throughout a cupboard assembly hosted by US President Donald Trump within the Cupboard Room of the White Home in Washington, July 8, 2025.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP through Getty Pictures

In 2023 he was appointed because the director of the DOJ's Ethics Workplace, which advises staff of the principles governing monetary disclosures, conflicts of curiosity and situations mandating recusal. amongst others.

It is unclear what particularly prompted Tirrell's firing, although a number of former officers famous that he was main the workplace when Smith disclosed, after departing the DOJ, that Smith had accepted $140,000 in professional bono authorized providers as a "present." The disclosure famous that Tirrell particularly signed off on the present as being in compliance with relevant ethics legal guidelines and rules.

Tirrell's dismissal additionally comes amid a number of different removals of officers who labored on Smith's workforce, in addition to at the very least two extra profession prosecutors who labored on the investigation into the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Each investigations have been below the microscope of former interim D.C. U.S. Legal professional Ed Martin since he joined the primary Justice Division to steer its so-called "Weaponization Working Group."