Left-leaning organizations launched a partnership to provide legal support and advice to “deep state” employees ousted during President Donald Trump’s second term.
The new initiative, called the You Are Not Alone Project, is comprised of three organizations: Democracy Forward’s Civil Service Strong, the American Federation of Government Employees, and the Partnership for Public Service.
The pilot program, launched in July for State Department employees, has since expanded across federal agencies. The pilot program included helping ousted bureaucrats access free legal representation through Rise Up, also known as the Federal Workers Legal Defense Network, which is another coalition of left-leaning groups that includes the three member organizations of You Are Not Alone.
The pilot also gave former bureaucrats instructions for making appeals to the Merit Systems Protection Board and for filing complaints through the Office of Special Counsel.
Democracy Forward, a litigation and advocacy group, is chaired by veteran Democrat election lawyer Marc Elias, known for pushing the Russia-Donald Trump collusion conspiracy theory while working for the Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign.
Rob Shriver, the managing director of the Civil Service Strong program at Democracy Forward, is a former acting director of the federal Office of Personnel Management under President Joe Biden.
“Federal employees serve our nation with dedication and integrity. As we litigate multiple cases where the workforce has been unlawfully targeted, we want to make sure that people know they are not alone as they face the threat of job loss,” said Shriver in a public statement. “The You Are Not Alone Project is about more than resources—it’s about solidarity, dignity, and ensuring public servants have the tools they need to protect their rights and move forward.”
An article in The Atlantic on Tuesday referred to Democracy Forward as the “single largest source of Trump’s legal troubles.”
The American Federation of Government Employees is the nation’s largest federal employee union, which has a political action committee that contributes heavily to Democrat political candidates. In the 2024 election cycle, the union’s political action committee made 95.4% of its donations to Democrat candidates, according to Open Secrets.
The Partnership for Public Service is somewhat of an outlier in that trio. The organization has often steered clear of advocacy and has publicly focused on government efficiency and even accountability through governmental procedures. Though during Trump’s second term, the organization has been critical of the administration for cutting the size of the federal workforce.
The three groups only announced the You Are Not Alone Project for all federal agencies late last week. However, the alliance established the pilot program in July for former State Department employees after the department issued layoff notices to more than 1,300 people as part of a Trump administration reorganization. The reorganization is expected to result in about 3,000 total departures when those leaving voluntarily are also included, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.
A union spokesperson referred The Daily Signal to a news release explaining the pilot program. The Partnership for Public Service referred questions on legal matters to Democracy Forward. A Democracy Forward spokesperson did not reply to inquiries from The Daily Signal.
Although he opposes the unionization of federal employees, such partnerships would be a legitimate union function, said Michael Watson, research director at the Capital Research Center, an investigative think tank that monitors nonprofits.
“While I stand by my long-standing view that government worker unions should not exist … as announced, the plan seems like the sort of thing labor unions, if they are going to exist, should do,” Watson told The Daily Signal. “Obviously, it is more partisan-political than that, as the Elias ties indicate, but providing support to members affected by layoffs is not the worst thing labor unions do.”
He added that he is not “hugely surprised” by the Partnership for Public Service joining the coalition.
“It is obviously aligned with progressives,” Watson said. “While it’s not as openly partisan as Mr. Elias or as functionally partisan as the union, it sees itself as defending public servants.”
“Our union won’t stand by while these patriotic citizens are cast aside,” American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley said in a public statement.
The federal employees need support now more than ever, said Jenny Mattingley, vice president for government affairs at the Partnership for Public Service. “It’s important that federal employees have trusted places to go for accurate, plain-language resources to help them navigate this time of stress and uncertainty.”