President Donald Trump of the United States, US, has been dragged to court by eight inspector generals who he fired from their federal agency watchdog posts.

The eight Inspector Generals instituted legal actions against Trump in a bid to get their job back.

They stated that the president lacked the capacity to fire them in late January without first notifying Congress, adding that the White House ignored regulations around their removal that existed to protect them from political interference and retribution.

This was contained in a lawsuit filed in Washington DC Federal Court on Wednesday.

In the suit, the aggrieved said the administration’s “actions have inflicted substantial damage on the critical oversight ethos of transparency, truth-telling without fear or favor, and respect for the rule of law.”

Commenting, attorney for the IGs said: “Their purported removals were legal nullities, and so they remain the duly appointed IGs of their respective agencies, unless and until the President lawfully removes them in compliance.

“Plaintiffs’ integrity has been baselessly maligned publicly, with the abrupt and unlawful nature of their purported removals incorrectly implying that plaintiffs have done something wrong when in fact they have each done nothing but uphold the values of their positions and the IG community.”

The lawsuit is the latest among more than four dozens filed in federal courts to challenge swift, early executive actions by the Trump administration.

Their dismissals raised questions over Trump and his government adviser, Elon Musk’s adversarial approach to existing, long-established federal corruption watchdogs.

Trump’s dismissal of 18 IGs happened in the first week of his second term, when the watchdogs each received two-sentence emails titled “White House Notification” from the Office of Presidential Personnel. The reason they were given was “changing priorities,” which is not a sufficient reason under the law, their lawsuit claims.