WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The CIA late last week moved to fire more than a dozen officers for working on diversity issues, in what amounts to a deeply unusual round of mass firings at the agency, according to court filings and current and former officials familiar with the effort.

In a court filing, the government suggested that further dismissals may be imminent, and a current official familiar with the matter confirmed that agency officials are in the process of working on recommendations for further cuts. A final number has not yet been decided, that person said.

Some of the fired officers are now challenging their dismissal in court on the grounds that it violated federal workforce laws, and a federal judge in Virginia is expected to hold a hearing to weigh a temporary restraining order against the move on Monday. Kevin Carroll, a lawyer and former CIA officer, said he represents 21 officers who have been fired.

“None of these officers’ activities was or is illegal, and at no time have the agencies employing Plaintiffs contended that they individually engaged in any misconduct, nor are they accused of poor performance,” those officers claim in a complaint against Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. “Plaintiffs are being fired because of their assumed beliefs about a domestic political issue, and losing their property interest in their employment without due process of law.”

According to the filing, the officers were only on temporary assignments working on diversity issues — the agency routinely assigns officers to different roles as part of their career development — and in some cases, they were not working on diversity issues at all.

“Plaintiffs are not somehow ‘DEIA officers,’” the filing read. “Plaintiffs are career intelligence officers of different career services who Defendants believe, in some cases inaccurately, now serve in temporary positions related to DEIA.”

The CIA declined to comment.

Trump on January 20 issued an executive order ordering an immediate end to so-called “diversity, equity and inclusion” work across the government. On January 22, according to court filings and Carroll, the agency put some 51 officers’ roles under review and put them on administrative leave “apparently only because of their temporary assignments to personnel functions involving DEIA.” Last Friday, some of those officers received phone calls from human resources officers directing them to report to CIA or ODNI facilities and bring their access badges with them — a precursor to dismissal.

The CIA has not yet made a decision on the fate of the remaining officers in that cohort of 51.

In a court filing, it said that CIA Director John Ratcliffe “also may determine that it is necessary or advisable in the interests of the United States to terminate the employment of additional employees as necessary to effectuate the direction in” Trump’s January 20 order.

In opposing a temporary restraining order, the government said that it has “exceptional discretion to terminate the employment of personnel employed within the CIA and ODNI” and that a restraining order would “harm the public interest” and “constrain the [CIA director’s] congressionally vested discretion to make personnel determinations when he deems such determinations in the interest of the United States.”

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