The Justice Department’s senior ethics attorney, a position tasked with ensuring all employees abide by the department’s moral principles, announced Monday that Attorney General Pam Bondi had fired him.

Joseph Tirrell said he received notice from Bondi on Friday and shared a copy of her letter to him on LinkedIn. The notice did not provide any reasoning for his firing, which was effective immediately, but says he may appeal the decision.

Tirrell said in his LinkedIn post that he was “responsible for advising the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General directly on federal employee ethics” and led a team of 30 people dedicated to upholding ethics across the Justice Department.

His public service career spanned a quarter of a century, Tirrell wrote in his announcement, saying he began as a U.S. Naval officer before earning a law degree and working at the FBI before moving to the DOJ. He’s led the ethics office since 2023.

Bondi’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

ABC News, which was the first to report on Tirrell’s firing, said several DOJ officials noted that Tirrell was running point on ethics when former special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw some of the investigations into President Donald Trump during the Biden era, disclosed that he’d accepted $140,000 in pro bono legal services as a “gift” signed off on by Tirrell.

His dismissal is part of a larger wave of firings last week. Axios reported Friday that as many as 20 DOJ staffers were let go that day and that a total of 37 people were on the chopping block. Those staffers were reportedly rooted out following findings from Bondi’s “Weaponization Working Group,” a program she launched to rid the Justice Department of Trump’s political opponents.

Tirrell’s firing comes as Bondi and the Justice Department feel the heat from President Donald Trump’s base after announcing they’re closing the Jeffrey Epstein case and won’t be releasing any more files.