After an intense legal battle, President Donald Trump and his administration scored a massive victory regarding the firing of a high-level official who oversees a whistleblower protection agency.

According to CNN, Special counsel Hampton Dellinger announced this week that he will drop his legal battle to keep his job in the wake of being fired by President Trump.

The situation went from a normal firing to a long, drawn out legal battle that even touched the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The situation was described as a "test" of Trump's ability to fire federal government workers who have some level of independence within their jobs, such as heading up a federal whistleblower protection agency.

What happened?

The case was the first of its kind -- regarding Trump's ability to fire such individuals -- to make it to the Supreme Court, and had Dellinger not dropped the case, would have undoubtedly been revisited by the high court.

Dellinger dropped his case in the wake of a federal Circuit Court in Washington, DC siding with the Trump administration in ruling that he would be out of his position for now while the matter was continuing to be litigated.

The fired agency head released a statement on his decision to exit the ongoing legal battle.

"This new ruling means that [the Office of Special Counsel] will be run by someone totally beholden to the President for the months that would pass before I could get a final decision from the US Supreme Court," his statement read.

He added, "I think the circuit judges erred badly because their willingness to sign off on my ouster – even if presented as possibly temporary – immediately erases the independence Congress provided for my position, a vital protection that has been accepted as lawful for nearly fifty years."

Dellinger admitted that he believes the high court would have probably sided with Trump.

"Given the circuit court’s adverse ruling, I think my odds of ultimately prevailing before the Supreme Court are long. Meanwhile, the harm to the agency and those who rely on it caused by a Special Counsel who is not independent could be immediate, grievous, and, I fear, uncorrectable."

More tests on the way

Trump is certainly not finished with cleaning out the D.C. swamp, and there very well could be cases like Dellinger's coming up soon.

Many wish that Dellinger would have stayed in the battle just so that the Supreme Court could set a new precedent for Trump -- and future presidents -- to make such decisions without legal backlash.

Only time will tell who's next.