Attorney General Pam Bondi has fired her top ethics lawyer, booting the man responsible for advising her on how to follow government rules.
Joseph Tirrell, who was director of the Departmental Ethics Office, posted on his LinkedIn page Ms. Bondi’s letter from Friday firing him. The letter didn’t give a reason for his ouster, but he suggested in his own note that it was because he wasn’t cooperating.
“I believe in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — ’the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ I also believe that Edmund Burke is right and that ’the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing,’” he wrote.
ABC reported over the weekend that Ms. Bondi fired at least 20 department employees with ties to former special counsel Jack Smith, who won two criminal indictments against President Trump before scuttling the cases after the election.
A Justice Department spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the terminations.
Mr. Tirrell didn’t respond to a request for comment made through his social media page.
In his post, he said he has been in public service for more than 25 years, starting out as a Navy officer and going into the FBI before joining the main Justice Department in the ethics office. He was promoted to director in 2023, under then-Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Mr. Tirrell said he led a team of 30 lawyers, paralegals and other specialists in advising on departmental ethics.
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this story.
