In the spree of memos coming out of President Donald Trump’s Office of Personnel Management, two conservative activists have emerged as key figures, appearing to ghostwrite memos ostensibly from the office’s acting director, Charles Ezell.
Noah Peters, an attorney who represented white nationalist Jared Taylor and who encouraged Kyle Rittenhouse to sue his critics, is listed as the author of a memo titled “Guidance on Presidential Memorandum Return to In-Person Work,” according to metadata reviewed by Salon. Peters, who also has ties to Project 2025, has been floated by the Heritage Foundation as a potential pick for a role in the Trump Labor Department.
James Sherk, the one-time director of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank dedicated to policies like ending funding for Planned Parenthood, opposing red-flag gun laws, opposing transgender rights and ending a slew of legal immigration policies, is listed as the author of the memo titled “Federal Civilian Hiring Freeze Guidance,” according to metadata reviewed by Salon.
Sherk, who Trump recently tapped to serve as the White House Domestic Policy Council, was central to Trump’s Schedule F plan late in his first administration, a policy designed to make it easier to fire federal employees while skirting civil service protections.
Sherk has also advocated for requiring federal employees to return to the office five days a week in the hopes that it would encourage civil servants to voluntarily leave their positions in a November 2022 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.
Although the Trump administration has since moved to replace the files on the OPM’s website with copies of the memo with different authors listed, journalist Molly White has hosted the original files at her website, Citations Needed.
Although the former president has denied having knowledge of or a connection to Project 2025, the apparent inclusion of conservative agents like Sherk and Peters in his administration shows that many of the plans from the Heritage Foundation document are underway.
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