Speaking of disappearing people …

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EPA Suspends over 140 Toxic Employees Who Wrote Letter Denouncing Trump Policies

The agency has placed 144 staffers on paid leave and launched an inquiry into their participation in signing a letter that accused the Trump administration of politicizing the agency.

The agency said its actions were warranted because the employees had signed the letter using their official titles and because the letter had denigrated the agency’s leadership.

“The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” the E.P.A. press secretary, Brigit Hirsch, wrote in an email.

The 144 employees received emails on Thursday saying they had been placed on leave for the next two weeks “pending an administrative investigation,” according to a copy of the email reviewed by The New York Times.

“You are required to provide a current email address and phone number so that we can contact you as part of our investigation,” the email said, adding that the staff members would continue to collect paychecks while on leave.

[The employees’ public letter] outlined five key concerns, including that the Trump administration was dismantling the EPA office of research and development, canceling environmental justice programs and grants, making employees fearful, undermining the trust of the public, and “ignoring scientific consensus to protect polluters.”

“These actions directly undermine EPA’s capacity to fulfill its mission,” the letter said.

And here’s a surprise:

The employees placed on administrative leave are planning to sue.

More than 170 EPA employees put their names to the document, with about 100 more signing anonymously out of fear of retaliation, according to Jeremy Berg, a former editor-in-chief of Science magazine who is not an EPA employee but was among non-EPA scientists or academics to also sign.

At least 31 workers were escorted out of the Chicago office. A union leader told ABC7 Chicago they will sue the administration for violating their right to freedom of speech.

Yeah, good luck with that; lower courts will undoubtedly side with these insubordinates, but theirs is not the final say (or final stay, so to speak).