U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi
TAMPA — An assistant U.S. attorney in the Tampa area is suing Attorney General Pam Bondi and the U.S. Department of Justice over his June 27 firing, alleging that the termination was the result of political retaliation for his work prosecuting Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
Michael Gordon, who had worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida since 2017, joined two other terminated DOJ employees in filing the federal lawsuit in the District of Columbia. Gordon had prosecuted multiple defendants who took part in the attack on the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, including Richard Barnett, Eric Munchel and Ray Epps.
The other two plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Patricia Hartman, who worked as a supervisory public affairs specialist prior to being terminated on July 7, and Joseph Tirrell, who served as director of the DOJ’s Departmental Ethics Office before being fired on July 11.
Gordon received a one-page termination notice signed by Bondi that offered no specific reasons to justify the firing. “Pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States, your employment with the Department of Justice is hereby terminated, and you are removed from federal service effective immediately,” the notice said.
The lawsuit argues that Bondi does not have the power to remove DOJ employees at will because there are legal guardrails preventing such workers from arbitrary termination or decisions that appear retaliatory.
“The government may only terminate plaintiffs if doing so does not violate statutorily defined prohibited personnel practices, and only after established due process procedures are followed,” the complaint states.
The Office of Personal Management is responsible for enforcing federal civil service protections that require personnel actions, including firings, to be free from "arbitrary action, personal favoritism or coercion for partisan political purposes,” the lawsuit says.
The complaint points out that Gordon was fired on the same day as two other assistant U.S. attorneys who had previously prosecuted Jan. 6 defendants. This indicates that Gordon’s firing was retaliation for prosecutions the Trump administration saw as politically affiliated, the plaintiffs argue.
Plaintiff Hartman was the main Justice Department official doing public affairs work concerning the prosecution of criminal cases involving Jan. 6 defendants.
One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record that the operation of the justice system hinges on the independence of prosecutors who enforce the laws “without fear, favor or political pressure.”
“This case isn’t about one prosecutor’s career, but the integrity of our legal system,” Lowell said. “Mike Gordon was a distinguished prosecutor whose public service included convicting violent gang members, Jan. 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol and fraudsters who preyed on people with disabilities. He followed the law, not politics, and was fired for it.”
The Justice Department has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
A congressional Democrat representing the Tampa area, Kathy Castor, urged Bondi to reinstate Gordon to his position, arguing that he was in the middle of the federal prosecution of Leo Govoni of St. Petersburg, who has been accused of embezzling more than $100 million from medical trust funds that were intended to benefit the disabled, injured workers and retirees throughout Florida.
“The timing and circumstances of Mr. Gordon’s termination raise serious concerns about political retribution and threaten to derail justice for victims who have already suffered for far too long,” Castor said in a recent letter to Bondi.