Court orders Trump administration to rehire fired intelligence officers

The administration fired 19 officers of the CIA and the National Intelligence Director’s Office who had been assigned to jobs promoting diversity.

A federal appeals court has ordered the Trump administration to rehire intelligence officers who were fired over their temporary assignments working on diversity issues, saying spy agencies had to uphold the employees’ constitutional right to due process.

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The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence failed to abide by their own regulations when they fired 19 career intelligence officers, the three-judge panel ruled in a 2-1 decision.

The intelligence officers previously argued their firings were “arbitrary” and “unsupported by any evidentiary record whatsoever.” They also maintained that they should have been reassigned to new duties instead of being penalized for jobs a previous administration ordered them to carry out.