Nothing inspires confidence in the ethics of an institution more than firing the ethics watchdog. It’s a lot like firing the junkyard watchdog. You’re sending a signal to the neighborhood that they can come in and pillage away, because nobody’s guarding the lot. Pam Bondi did that very thing today.
Why it matters: The ethics director was fired on the same day that Bondi dismissed more than 20 employees involved in various investigations of President Donald Trump, reflecting an ongoing purge of personnel at the department.
Context: On Monday, former director Joseph Tirrell confirmed on LinkedIn that he had been fired from the position without being given a reason for his removal.
- Tirrell has worked for the DOJ for 16 years, and became director of the departmental ethics office in July of 2023, according to his official staff profile.
- In the LinkedIn post, Tirrell said he was responsible for “ensuring that the 117,000 Department employees were properly advised on and supported in how to follow the Federal employee ethics rules.”
- The Department of Justice declined to comment on why Tirrell was dismissed.
The intrigue: Tirrell advised Special Counsel Jack Smith on ethical considerations during his criminal prosecutions of President Trump, according to Bloomberg Law.
- That included approving approximately $140,000 in pro bono legal assistance from Covington & Burling law firm, which Smith disclosed after conducting his investigation into the president.
Zoom out: The staffers ousted on Friday were identified during an internal investigation carried out by the “Weaponization Working Group,” which Bondi established to review “unethical prosecutions” amongst other things in February.
- The group’s director, Ed Martin, was dropped as Trump’s pick for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in May, as it became clear his previous inflammatory comments regarding Jan. 6 were complicating his ability to be confirmed to the post by the Senate.
- Martin was later appointed as U.S. Pardon Attorney and the group’s director in May, according to his staff profile.
The swamp and Trump are one. And that’s some heavy irony coming from the man who was going to drain it. What he managed to do is restock and expand it.
Bondi’s still there but the ethics attorney is gone — hit by the stray bullet, as the tweet above points out, while everybody was gunning for the attorney general. Bondi is laying off a lot of people, so is Marco Rubio over at State, and we are well on our way to becoming a banana republic. Wheeeeeee!
Apparently this administration don’t need no stinkin’ ethics! So there.
The only ethics they need are to kiss up to his lowness, cover for him and do his illegal bidding.
I was going to say the same. But before I did, I checked out who was responsible for all but the last word you used in that phrase. I thought it was John Belushi. In my search, I discovered some credited Mel Brooks. But as it turns out, the first known use of the original phrase ‘We Don’t Need No Stinking Badges’ was first uttered by Micky Dolenz of Monkees fame in 1967 on an episode of their TV series. That’s all I got.
An ethics director in the Trump regime does seem a tad redundant, like a marine taskforce on ikebana.