{"id":164269,"date":"2026-10-02T12:07:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T20:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/02\/there-are-two-guys-in-seattle-calling-themselves-us-attorney-neither-was-confirmed-by-senate\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T12:07:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T20:07:48","slug":"there-are-two-guys-in-seattle-calling-themselves-us-attorney-neither-was-confirmed-by-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/02\/there-are-two-guys-in-seattle-calling-themselves-us-attorney-neither-was-confirmed-by-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"There Are Two Guys In Seattle Calling Themselves US Attorney. Neither Was Confirmed By Senate."},"content":{"rendered":"

The problem with breaking the same law over and over in different jurisdictions is that lots of judges wind up taking a swing at you. After the first couple of them punch all the obvious holes in your goofy argument, the others start feeling the need to get creative. And yesterday Judge Stanley Bastian got very<\/em> creative on the subject of Trump\u2019s effort to evade Senate confirmation for U.S. Attorneys.<\/p>\n

Judge Bastian is Chief of the Eastern District of Washington, but he was asked to weigh in on a lawsuit filed by Roger Rogoff, who says he\u2019s the rightful U.S. Attorney in the state\u2019s Western District. On July 15, Rogoff was appointed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. \u00a7 546(d)<\/a>, which allows the district judges to pick someone to run the prosecutor\u2019s office if the president\u2019s interim appointment expires with no Senate-confirmed replacement. Within the hour, Blanche had fired him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them. WDWA judges abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration so that the selected U.S. Attorney is qualified to serve in the administration. <\/p>\n

Roger Rogoff has been\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Attorney General Todd Blanche (@AGToddBlanche) July 15, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

That\u2019s marginally more diplomatic than when Pam Bondi snorted<\/a> that \u201cThis Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges \u2014 especially when they threaten the President\u2019s core Article II powers.\u201d That was after the District Court of New Jersey refused to bless Alina Habba\u2019s continued tenure, just because she\u2019d never prosecuted a case in her life.<\/p>\n

Bondi tried various strategies to keep Trump\u2019s cronies employed in jurisdictions where the Senate blue slip rule made confirming them impossible. The Third Circuit dropkicked her plan to reappoint Habba for multiple 120-day stints. The Ninth Circuit rolled its eyes at the effort to make Sigal Chattah the first assistant in Nevada, allowing her to succeed herself when her interim appointment timed out via the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. The Second Circuit nixed the plan to make John Sarcone a special counsel with all the powers of a U.S. Attorney. And, although the Fourth Circuit has yet to weigh in on Bondi\u2019s claim that she retroactively ratified Lindsey Halligan\u2019s appointment, oral argument did not bode well<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Bondi seems to have achieved an uneasy equilibrium, leaving the crony candidate as First Assistant U.S. Attorney, effectively running the office without Senate confirmation. In the Western District of Washington, after they fired Rogoff, they installed a former immigration judge named Charles Floyd. That works as long as the judges in the district don\u2019t appoint someone else. And so far, everyone has accepted that Trump has the absolute right to fire a judicial appointee \u2026 until Rogoff sued<\/a> on July 21 to get his job back.<\/p>\n

He argues that Congress serially delegated the power to temporarily fill a U.S. Attorney vacancy, first to the president and then to the courts. And Judge Bastian agreed<\/a> that the law does not contemplate a president being able to remove a judicial appointee:<\/p>\n

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Neither Congress nor the President can unilaterally and permanently fill the office. The two branches must work together to fill the office for longer than the short periods of time authorized by the statutes. When the two branches refuse or fail to cooperate in the nomination\/confirmation process, then and only then can the Court act to file the role. Once the Court acts and fills the rule, however, that decision can be changed only by the nomination\/confirmation process.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The judge concluded that, \u201cwhile the President has the power to remove executive officer whom he has appointed, see Trump v. United States<\/em>, 603 U.S. 593 (2024), it does not follow he has authority to remove executive officers that he has not<\/em> appointed.\u201d And so the court ordered DOJ to let Rogoff back in the building and treat him as the rightful occupant of the office until such time as the Senate confirms a nominee \u2014\u00a0i.e. 2029, at which point there may be a Democrat in the White House who\u2019ll put forward someone who can get buy-in from Senators Murray and Cantwell. <\/p>\n

The administration immediately appealed. After all, Trump\u2019s tagline is \u201cYou\u2019re fired!\u201d And the Supreme Court has certainly let him axe any number of agency heads and board members whose jobs Congress intended to protect. But as of this writing, the government has neither asked Judge Bastian to stay his order nor moved for emergency relief from the Ninth Circuit. <\/p>\n

Bet that was an awkward morning in Seattle with two lawyers walking around the office, both claiming to be the boss.<\/p>\n

Rogoff v. Trump<\/a> [Trial Docket via Court Listener]<\/p>\n

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Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0Substack\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0You can subscribe by clicking the logo:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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The post There Are Two Guys In Seattle Calling Themselves US Attorney. Neither Was Confirmed By Senate.<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The problem with breaking the same law over and over in different jurisdictions is that lots of judges wind up taking a swing at you. After the first couple of them punch all the obvious holes in your goofy argument, the others start feeling the need to get creative. And yesterday Judge Stanley Bastian got very<\/em> creative on the subject of Trump\u2019s effort to evade Senate confirmation for U.S. Attorneys.<\/p>\n

Judge Bastian is Chief of the Eastern District of Washington, but he was asked to weigh in on a lawsuit filed by Roger Rogoff, who says he\u2019s the rightful U.S. Attorney in the state\u2019s Western District. On July 15, Rogoff was appointed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. \u00a7 546(d)<\/a>, which allows the district judges to pick someone to run the prosecutor\u2019s office if the president\u2019s interim appointment expires with no Senate-confirmed replacement. Within the hour, Blanche had fired him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s marginally more diplomatic than when Pam Bondi snorted<\/a> that \u201cThis Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges \u2014 especially when they threaten the President\u2019s core Article II powers.\u201d That was after the District Court of New Jersey refused to bless Alina Habba\u2019s continued tenure, just because she\u2019d never prosecuted a case in her life.<\/p>\n

Bondi tried various strategies to keep Trump\u2019s cronies employed in jurisdictions where the Senate blue slip rule made confirming them impossible. The Third Circuit dropkicked her plan to reappoint Habba for multiple 120-day stints. The Ninth Circuit rolled its eyes at the effort to make Sigal Chattah the first assistant in Nevada, allowing her to succeed herself when her interim appointment timed out via the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. The Second Circuit nixed the plan to make John Sarcone a special counsel with all the powers of a U.S. Attorney. And, although the Fourth Circuit has yet to weigh in on Bondi\u2019s claim that she retroactively ratified Lindsey Halligan\u2019s appointment, oral argument did not bode well<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Bondi seems to have achieved an uneasy equilibrium, leaving the crony candidate as First Assistant U.S. Attorney, effectively running the office without Senate confirmation. In the Western District of Washington, after they fired Rogoff, they installed a former immigration judge named Charles Floyd. That works as long as the judges in the district don\u2019t appoint someone else. And so far, everyone has accepted that Trump has the absolute right to fire a judicial appointee \u2026 until Rogoff sued<\/a> on July 21 to get his job back.<\/p>\n

He argues that Congress serially delegated the power to temporarily fill a U.S. Attorney vacancy, first to the president and then to the courts. And Judge Bastian agreed<\/a> that the law does not contemplate a president being able to remove a judicial appointee:<\/p>\n

\n

Neither Congress nor the President can unilaterally and permanently fill the office. The two branches must work together to fill the office for longer than the short periods of time authorized by the statutes. When the two branches refuse or fail to cooperate in the nomination\/confirmation process, then and only then can the Court act to file the role. Once the Court acts and fills the rule, however, that decision can be changed only by the nomination\/confirmation process.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The judge concluded that, \u201cwhile the President has the power to remove executive officer whom he has appointed, see Trump v. United States<\/em>, 603 U.S. 593 (2024), it does not follow he has authority to remove executive officers that he has not<\/em> appointed.\u201d And so the court ordered DOJ to let Rogoff back in the building and treat him as the rightful occupant of the office until such time as the Senate confirms a nominee \u2014\u00a0i.e. 2029, at which point there may be a Democrat in the White House who\u2019ll put forward someone who can get buy-in from Senators Murray and Cantwell. <\/p>\n

The administration immediately appealed. After all, Trump\u2019s tagline is \u201cYou\u2019re fired!\u201d And the Supreme Court has certainly let him axe any number of agency heads and board members whose jobs Congress intended to protect. But as of this writing, the government has neither asked Judge Bastian to stay his order nor moved for emergency relief from the Ninth Circuit. <\/p>\n

Bet that was an awkward morning in Seattle with two lawyers walking around the office, both claiming to be the boss.<\/p>\n

Rogoff v. Trump<\/a> [Trial Docket via Court Listener]<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0Substack\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0You can subscribe by clicking the logo:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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The problem with breaking the same law over and over in different jurisdictions is that lots of judges wind up taking a swing at you. After the first couple of them punch all the obvious holes in your goofy argument, the others start feeling the need to get creative. And yesterday Judge Stanley Bastian got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":164270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}