Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued a scathing statement via her legal team after being abruptly removed as head of the public health agency.

Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, Monarez’s attorneys, told the Associated Press their client had not resigned but was not told that she was fired.

“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted,” they said in a statement to the AP.

That statement came after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wrote on social media that Monarez “is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people.”

“This is not about one official. It is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science. The attack on Dr. Monarez is a warning to every American: our evidence-based systems are being undermined from within,” Monarez’s lawyers said.

This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.