The Justice Department’s former top ethics official has spoken out about his termination, revealing that one of his final battles involved preventing Attorney General Pam Bondi from keeping a box of cigars sent by mixed martial arts celebrity Conor McGregor.
Joseph Tirrell, who led the DOJ’s Departmental Ethics Office for seven years after spending over a decade at the FBI, described to sources how he faced resistance from Bondi’s team over accepting gifts that federal ethics rules clearly prohibit.
“We got a request about some cigars from Conor McGregor and a soccer ball from FIFA,” Tirrell explained. “And I felt like I really had to go to the mattress to convince the A.G.’s office: You can pay for the item or you can return the item or you can throw the item away. There’s no other way to do this.”
The incident highlights what Tirrell characterized as a pattern of pushback against established ethics guidelines at the highest levels of the Justice Department under the current administration.
“As a federal employee, you’re restricted from accepting gifts from anyone because of your position,” Tirrell told, outlining the basic framework that governs federal officials’ conduct.
He added that during his ethics briefing with Bondi, they discussed the restrictions around accepting gifts from department employees. “But that started to be a recurring theme with the A.G.’s office. They didn’t want to return gifts, they didn’t want to not accept gifts, whatever the source.”
A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed that after consulting with ethics officials, the soccer ball was accepted on behalf of the department and the cigars were destroyed—the outcome Tirrell had advocated for.
The gift from McGregor came from the Irish sports figure whom President Donald Trump has publicly praised as “great” and identified as his favorite Irish person. McGregor recently lost his appeal in a civil case where he was found liable for SAt. Despite this, he reportedly secured a spot at a UFC match scheduled to take place at the White House in July.
Tirrell’s concerns extended beyond the attorney general’s office. He recounted receiving a call from the FBI’s general counsel regarding FBI Director Kash Patel, who has faced scrutiny over his private jet usage.
“I briefed Ms. Bondi about the ethics rules, and we talked about accepting gifts from employees in the department—for the most part, leaders can’t accept gifts from their subordinates,” Tirrell said.
The general counsel informed Tirrell that Patel “felt like ‘he should be able to accept more expensive gifts.'”
Tirrell’s response was direct: “I reminded [the counsel] that his client was not Mr. Patel, but the United States.”
Fired in July, Tirrell is now among three career Justice Department officials who have filed a lawsuit against Bondi and the U.S. government. The suit alleges they were unlawfully terminated after their work on prosecutions related to the January 6 Capitol attack. The officials have been described as “exemplary” public servants.
