WASHINGTON >> Eight government watchdogs have sued over their mass firing that removed oversight of President Donald Trump’s new administration.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington asks a judge to declare the firings unlawful and restore the inspectors general to their positions at the agencies.

The watchdogs are charged with rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse at government agencies, playing a nonpartisan oversight role over trillions of dollars in federal spending and the conduct of millions of federal employees, according to the lawsuit.

Presidents can remove inspectors general, but the Trump administration did not give Congress a legally required 30-day notice, something that even a top Republican decried.

The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the lawsuit. Trump has said he would put new “good people” in the jobs.

The administration dismissed more than a dozen inspectors general in a Friday-night sweep on the fourth full day of Trump’s second term. Though inspectors general are presidential appointees, some serve presidents of both parties. All are expected to be nonpartisan. Two of the plaintiffs had been nominated to inspector general roles by Trump in his first term.

“The firing of the independent, nonpartisan inspector general was a clear violation of the law,” said Michael Missal, the former inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs. “The IGs are bringing this action for reinstatement so that they can go back to work fighting fraud waste and abuse on behalf the American public.”

At the time of the firings, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said there may have been good reasons for the terminations but that Congress needed to know.

The lawsuit comes a day after the White House fired the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development, following a warning from his office that the administration’s dismantling of that agency had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian funds.

The role of the modern-day inspector general dates to post-Watergate Washington, when Congress installed offices inside agencies as an independent check against mismanagement and abuse of power.

Democrats and watchdog groups said the firings raise alarms that Trump is making it easier to take advantage of the government.

Trump, said at the time the firings were “a very common thing to do.” But the lawsuit says that is not true and that mass firings have been considered improper since the 1980s.

The dismissals came through similarly worded emails from the director or deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel. The watchdogs’ computers, phones, and agency access badges were collected within days. The officials were escorted into their respective agencies to collect their personal belongings under supervision, they said in the lawsuit.