Monitoring democratic institutions through public records
Government Worker Protections — Week of Oct 27, 2025
Are career government workers protected from being fired for political reasons? 'Schedule F' is a rule that could let the President fire thousands of workers who aren't loyal to him.
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A Senate resolution introduced on October 28 draws attention to the firing of three senior ethics officials at the Department of Justice over the first seven months of 2025. According to Senate Resolution 470, Bradley Weinsheimer, Jeffrey Ragsdale, and Joseph Tirrell — who were respectively responsible for senior ethics guidance, investigating attorney misconduct, and advising the Attorney General on ethics — were all removed from their positions between January and July 2025. The resolution connects these removals to President Trump's pursuit of $230 million in personal compensation from the Department of Justice related to previous federal investigations.
This might matter because career ethics officials are the people who decide whether someone at DOJ has a conflict of interest — for instance, whether officials with ties to the President should step aside from reviewing his financial claims against the department. Removing them could weaken the government's ability to prevent self-dealing, which is exactly what ethics offices exist to prevent.
Alternative explanations to consider: The most plausible is that senior officials leave government jobs regularly, and three departures over seven months may be coincidental rather than coordinated. It is also worth noting that this resolution was introduced by a senator from the opposing party and reflects her characterization of events; the Senate has not adopted it as a finding. Finally, the executive branch does have authority to reorganize offices and reassign personnel, which could explain some or all of these changes.
The resolution also notes that the federal government has been shut down since October 1, 2025, and roughly 2.4 million federal workers have gone without paychecks — adding broader workforce stress to the specific concern about ethics oversight.
Limitations: This analysis is based on claims in a single Senate resolution. The actual reasons for each official's departure have not been independently confirmed through this data.