The fired head of a federal watchdog agency says he's ending his legal fight

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President Trump leaves the chamber after addressing a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. The administration is locked in a legal battle over the firing of the head of a federal watchdog agency. / Getty Images

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fired head of a federal watchdog agency said Thursday that he's abandoning his legal battle against the Trump administration to get his job back, acknowledging he was likely facing a tough road before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hampton Dellinger said he was dropping his case a day after the federal appeals court in Washington sided with the Trump administration in removing him as the head of the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency dedicated to guarding the federal workforce from illegal personnel actions.

Dellinger's removal could threaten efforts his office has made in recent days to challenge the Trump administration's firing of thousands of probationary workers. It was not immediately clear who would replace Dellinger as special counsel.

"My fight to stay on the job was not for me, but rather for the ideal that OSC should be as Congress intended: an independent watchdog and a safe, trustworthy place for whistleblowers to report wrongdoing and be protected from retaliation," Dellinger said in a statement.

The case had become a flashpoint in the debate over how much power the president should have to replace the leaders of independent agencies as he moves to radically reshape and shrink the federal government. It had been expected that it would ultimately be decided by the conservative-majority Supreme Court.

Dellinger sued President Trump last month after he was fired even though the law says special counsels can be removed by the president "only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office." U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, quickly reinstated Dellinger in the job while he pursued his case.

Jackson on Saturday ruled that Dellinger's firing was unlawful and ordered that he remain in his post. But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday lifted Jackson's order blocking his removal, allowing the Trump administration to replace him while the judges weigh the legal arguments.

Dellinger said the appeals court's decision means the office "will be run by someone totally beholden to the President" for the months it would take for him to get a final ruling before the Supreme Court.

"I think the circuit judges erred badly because their willingness to sign off on my ouster — even if presented as possibly temporary — immediately erases the independence Congress provided for my position, a vital protection that has been accepted as lawful for nearly fifty years," Dellinger said.

While fighting to keep his job, Dellinger has also been advocating on behalf of probationary workers before a government board that enforces workers' rights. After a request from Dellinger's office, the board ruled Wednesday that more than 5,000 employees fired by the Trump administration should be put back on the job at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

While the order applies only to the USDA workers, Dellinger released a statement "calling on all federal agencies to voluntarily and immediately rescind any unlawful terminations of probationary employees."