747 live Judge Allows C.I.A. to Fire Officers Who Worked on Diversity Issues

A federal district judge on Thursday allowed the C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe, to fire intelligence officers who had worked on diversity issues, a decision that could clear the path for the termination of other employees at the spy agency.

Speaking from the bench, Judge Anthony J. Trenga said he would have ruled differently if the issue had been basic fairness. But he said the law and regulations gave Mr. Ratcliffe unfettered authority to fire employees at will, and without the review of the courts.

The decision came as the agency moved to comply with President Trump’s executive order banning efforts to diversify the federal work force.

U.S. officials have not specified how many intelligence officers would be dismissed as part of that push. Lawyers for the officers said the agency had moved to fire as many as 51 so far. The agency is also considering taking action against some probationary employees and has encouraged some midcareer employees to consider leaving.

Ten of the intelligence officers who had sued to stop their firing were in the courtroom as the judge made his decision on a temporary restraining order. They looked dejected as the judge ruled that their complaint was unlikely to succeed and said he would not issue a restraining order.

In court proceedings, Kevin Carroll, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, has argued that his clients and the other officers the C.I.A. intends to fire had done nothing wrong,phtaya casino and in fact received offers for other roles in the C.I.A. One data scientist, he said, had nine different offers for jobs within the agency.

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Robinson’s history of comments that have been widely criticized as antisemitic and anti-gay made him a deeply polarizing figure in North Carolina long before his bid for governor was upended last week by a CNN report that he had called himself a “Black NAZI” and praised slavery while posting on a pornographic website between 2008 and 2012. Now, some of his allies are abandoning him. Most of his senior campaign staff members have resigned. The Republican Governors Association said that its pro-Robinson ads would expire tomorrow and that no new ones had been placed. And former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Robinson in the spring, calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids,” did not mention him once during his rally in the state over the weekend.

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