Charlotte Burrows, a Democratic member and former chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission fired by Republican President Donald Trump, has hired a pair of Washington lawyers known for pursuing high-profile employment and sexual misconduct allegations.

A White House official defended the purge, calling the three women who lost their jobs "far-left appointees with radical records of upending longstanding labor law."

The commission is a five-person panel that is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate to five-year terms.

Arlington, Va. – President Donald Trump fired two of the three Democratic commissioners of the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the workplace, an unprecedented move aimed at implementing his crackdown on certain diversity and gender rights policies.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission members Charlotte A. Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels, both Democrats, said they were fired by President Donald Trump late Monday.

President Trump fired two Democratic EEOC commissioners and an NLRB board member, hobbling two independent agencies that are tasked with enforcing worker protections.