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The government said in a court filing that Charles Ezell, who issued the memos that agencies interpreted as orders to fire thousands of employees, would not appear in court Thursday.

(CNN) — The Justice Department told a federal judge on Tuesday that the acting head of the Office of Personnel Management won’t testify at a hearing later this week in a major case challenging the government’s efforts to cull the federal workforce, after the judge had rejected a DOJ request to cancel the hearing.

Acting Office of Personnel Management Director Charles Ezell won’t testify at a March 13 hearing in a lawsuit by government employee unions challenging the Trump Administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers,