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The government said in a court filing that Charles Ezell, who issued the memos that agencies interpreted as orders to fire thousands of employees, would not appear in court Thursday.

Acting Office of Personnel Management Director Charles Ezell must testify at a March 13 hearing in a lawsuit by government employee unions challenging the Trump Administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers,

The Justice Department told a federal judge on Tuesday that the acting head of the Office of Personnel Management won’t testify at a hearing later this week in a major case challenging the government’s efforts to cull the federal workforce,

The federal judge who ruled that the Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers were illegal says the official who ordered the firings must testify at a hearing this week or face sanctions.