There are questions in American law that divide judges along ideological lines. Whether Sigal Chattah gets to keep playing dress-up as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada is, it turns out, not one of them.

Today, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling that Chattah cannot lawfully supervise the prosecutions she’s been supervising, because she was never validly installed as the acting U.S. Attorney in the first place. The unanimous opinion was written by Judge Eric Miller, a Trump appointee, joined by Judge Sidney Thomas, a Clinton appointee, and District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, another Trump appointee sitting by designation. Given how badly the administration wants you to believe these disqualifications are the work of robed partisans out to sabotage Donald Trump’s crime-fighting agenda, two of the three judges who just told Chattah to knock it off owe their lifetime appointment to Trump.

The trick is, by now, an old friend. When Chattah’s 120-day interim appointment was about to expire, she resigned… and on the very same day, then-AG Pam Bondi named her First Assistant U.S. Attorney, on the theory that the Federal Vacancies Reform Act would then automatically boomerang her right back into the acting role by force of law. (Her resignation letter helpfully noted she “look[ed] forward to continuing to lead” the office she was, at that moment, resigning from.) The panel wasn’t buying it: automatic succession runs only to whoever was already first assistant when the vacancy arose (here that was Sue Fahami, back in January 2025) not to whomever the AG slots in 192 days later when she needs a warm body. The statute, Judge Miller wrote, “does not permit the executive to fill an existing vacancy by designating a new first assistant.” And no, newly confirmed AG Todd Blanche can’t get there by “delegating” every power of the office to Chattah under a different statute either, that would leave the FVRA doing nothing but “prohibit[ing] her from calling herself ‘Acting U.S. Attorney,’” a distinction the court called “meaningless.”

Chattah joins a roster of Trump appointees the administration keeps insisting are real U.S. Attorneys despite a conspicuous shortage of Senate confirmation votes turning them into anything of the sort:

* Alina Habba in New Jersey, the parking-garage lawyer whose “I’m my own first assistant” gambit got the Third Circuit treatment before she finally tapped out;
* Lindsey Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia, whose disqualification took the Comey and James indictments down with it;
* Bill Essayli in the Central District of California, disqualified but permitted to keep running the office as “first assistant” anyway; and
* John Sarcone in the Northern District of New York, whose subpoenas to Letitia James got quashed along with his authority to issue them.

That’s 0-5 on the janky-ass workarounds. Maybe the Trump administration should try nominating candidates that can get through Senate confirmation. Just a thought.

Earlier: Judge Calls Out Trump Appointee For Cosplaying As Federal Prosecutor
Another U.S. Attorney Disqualified After Failing The ‘Actually Appointed’ Test
Alina Habba Can’t Pretend To Be U.S. Attorney Anymore
Lindsey Halligan Resolves To Embarrass Herself At SCOTUS In 2026

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1

The post Even Trump’s Own Judges Agree: Sigal Chattah Isn’t A Real U.S. Attorney appeared first on Above the Law.

That’s 0-5 on the janky-ass workarounds. Maybe the Trump administration should try nominating candidates that can get through Senate confirmation. Just a thought.