{"id":165809,"date":"2026-10-23T06:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T14:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/23\/court-orders-grievance-committee-to-stop-hiding-punishment-it-imposed-on-fake-u-s-attorney-john-sarcone\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T06:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T14:16:09","slug":"court-orders-grievance-committee-to-stop-hiding-punishment-it-imposed-on-fake-u-s-attorney-john-sarcone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/23\/court-orders-grievance-committee-to-stop-hiding-punishment-it-imposed-on-fake-u-s-attorney-john-sarcone\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Orders Grievance Committee To Stop Hiding Punishment It Imposed On Fake U.S. Attorney John Sarcone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Will Waldron\/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Sarcone is, for all intents and purposes, running the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Northern District of New York, even though he is very much NOT the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York<\/a>. The Trump administration lists him as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney of that office, and takes the position that this title allows him to assume all the authority of the top job even though the effort to legally give him the real job fizzled.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201cthe assistant to the regional manager\u201d schtick, just with a bunch of arguably void criminal indictments.<\/p>\n

Beyond his dubious claim to his job, Sarcone\u2019s been a disastershambles since showing up on the job. Arguably the most disturbing episode of his tenure involved his office rapidly putting out an official Justice Department press release<\/a> under the headline \u201cUnited States Attorney John A. Sarcone III Attacked by a Salvadorian National with a Knife in Downtown Albany.\u201d The man, per the release, \u201clunged at Sarcone while brandishing a knife and yelling aggressively in a foreign language\u201d and was charged with attempted second-degree murder.<\/p>\n

Anyway\u2026 none of that happened.<\/p>\n

The surveillance video came out and did not support Sarcone\u2019s harrowing account<\/a>. The attempted murder charge went away, but for good measure the whole affair revealed that Sarcone\u2019s stated address within the district was a boarded up building<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A New York grievance committee then looked into whether using federal law enforcement press releases to make extra-judicial and prejudicial statements about a serious criminal matter amounted to professional misconduct. After deciding that it did, the grievance committee refused to let the public know what it decided to do about it, claiming at the time that:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe regret that we cannot be more specific about the nature of the action taken and in accordance with Judiciary Law \u00a790(10) and Atty. Disc. Rules \u00a71240.18, all papers, records and documents of a disciplinary investigation and proceeding are sealed and deemed private and confidential,\u201d [Committee\u2019s chair Elena Jaffe Tastensen] added.<\/p>\n

The Appellate Division has now unanimously disagreed. In a per curiam<\/em> decision<\/a>, the five-justice panel ordered the Attorney Grievance Committee to divulge the admonition it imposed on Sarcone back in April, directing \u201cthat AGC provide a copy thereof to [the Campaign for Accountabilty] forthwith.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Campaign for Accountability filed the original grievance<\/a> in August 2025, listing among the ethical problems the knife story, the boarded up home address, and Sarcone\u2019s decision to boot the Times Union<\/em> from his office\u2019s media list after it reported on all of the above. And that\u2019s all without getting into how he\u2019s stayed on the job<\/a> long after his legal right to it evaporated.<\/p>\n

In April, the committee told complainants it found \u201ca sufficient basis for a finding of professional misconduct,\u201d took some action, and declared the matter \u201cconcluded.\u201d CfA\u2019s Michelle Kuppersmith called it \u201ca secret slap on the wrist.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time the case reached the courts, even the grievance committee had given up on the idea that the petition proceedings should remain sealed:<\/p>\n

\n

AGC has conceded that it cannot advance a good-faith claim that its adjudicatory disposition should remain confidential.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Though don\u2019t necessarily read that as a gratuitous change of heart on the part of the committee. In July, the Second Circuit decided Civil Rights Corps v. LaSalle<\/em><\/a>, a challenge brought by people who\u2019d filed grievances against New York prosecutors<\/em>, and held that the First Amendment right of access reaches a grievance committee\u2019s final dispositions.<\/p>\n

Which is all to say that Sarcone\u2019s big argument that disclosure \u201cwould mark the end of all private discipline in New York\u201d was \u2014 like his claim to a federal government position \u2014 several months late. <\/p>\n

Of note, the court rejected the argument that the files should be released on the basis of Sarcone\u2019s role as a public official. According to the court, \u201cthe misconduct in question did not arise out of respondent\u2019s formal execution of his public duties\u201d \u2014 which is true to the extent he legally has no public duties, though the whole thing arrived on the public\u2019s doorstep because Sarcone put out an official U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office release.<\/p>\n

But the First Amendment argument overcame everything else. The court reminded everyone that \u201cattorney disciplinary proceedings have historically taken place in a public forum\u201d and that \u201cthe primary concern of a disciplinary proceeding is the protection of the public in its reliance on the integrity and responsibility of the legal profession.\u201d <\/p>\n

And while Sarcone\u2019s continued presence in the Northern District office also undermines the public\u2019s reliance on the integrity and responsibility of the legal profession, getting some transparency about his professional misconduct goes a small way toward repairing the damage.<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Another Day, Another Fake MAGA Prosecutor<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Court Orders Grievance Committee To Stop Hiding Punishment It Imposed On Fake U.S. Attorney John Sarcone<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Will Waldron\/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Sarcone is, for all intents and purposes, running the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Northern District of New York, even though he is very much NOT the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York<\/a>. The Trump administration lists him as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney of that office, and takes the position that this title allows him to assume all the authority of the top job even though the effort to legally give him the real job fizzled.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201cthe assistant to the regional manager\u201d schtick, just with a bunch of arguably void criminal indictments.<\/p>\n

Beyond his dubious claim to his job, Sarcone\u2019s been a disastershambles since showing up on the job. Arguably the most disturbing episode of his tenure involved his office rapidly putting out an official Justice Department press release<\/a> under the headline \u201cUnited States Attorney John A. Sarcone III Attacked by a Salvadorian National with a Knife in Downtown Albany.\u201d The man, per the release, \u201clunged at Sarcone while brandishing a knife and yelling aggressively in a foreign language\u201d and was charged with attempted second-degree murder.<\/p>\n

Anyway\u2026 none of that happened.<\/p>\n

The surveillance video came out and did not support Sarcone\u2019s harrowing account<\/a>. The attempted murder charge went away, but for good measure the whole affair revealed that Sarcone\u2019s stated address within the district was a boarded up building<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A New York grievance committee then looked into whether using federal law enforcement press releases to make extra-judicial and prejudicial statements about a serious criminal matter amounted to professional misconduct. After deciding that it did, the grievance committee refused to let the public know what it decided to do about it, claiming at the time that:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe regret that we cannot be more specific about the nature of the action taken and in accordance with Judiciary Law \u00a790(10) and Atty. Disc. Rules \u00a71240.18, all papers, records and documents of a disciplinary investigation and proceeding are sealed and deemed private and confidential,\u201d [Committee\u2019s chair Elena Jaffe Tastensen] added.<\/p>\n

The Appellate Division has now unanimously disagreed. In a per curiam<\/em> decision<\/a>, the five-justice panel ordered the Attorney Grievance Committee to divulge the admonition it imposed on Sarcone back in April, directing \u201cthat AGC provide a copy thereof to [the Campaign for Accountabilty] forthwith.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Campaign for Accountability filed the original grievance<\/a> in August 2025, listing among the ethical problems the knife story, the boarded up home address, and Sarcone\u2019s decision to boot the Times Union<\/em> from his office\u2019s media list after it reported on all of the above. And that\u2019s all without getting into how he\u2019s stayed on the job<\/a> long after his legal right to it evaporated.<\/p>\n

In April, the committee told complainants it found \u201ca sufficient basis for a finding of professional misconduct,\u201d took some action, and declared the matter \u201cconcluded.\u201d CfA\u2019s Michelle Kuppersmith called it \u201ca secret slap on the wrist.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time the case reached the courts, even the grievance committee had given up on the idea that the petition proceedings should remain sealed:<\/p>\n

\n

AGC has conceded that it cannot advance a good-faith claim that its adjudicatory disposition should remain confidential.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Though don\u2019t necessarily read that as a gratuitous change of heart on the part of the committee. In July, the Second Circuit decided Civil Rights Corps v. LaSalle<\/em><\/a>, a challenge brought by people who\u2019d filed grievances against New York prosecutors<\/em>, and held that the First Amendment right of access reaches a grievance committee\u2019s final dispositions.<\/p>\n

Which is all to say that Sarcone\u2019s big argument that disclosure \u201cwould mark the end of all private discipline in New York\u201d was \u2014 like his claim to a federal government position \u2014 several months late. <\/p>\n

Of note, the court rejected the argument that the files should be released on the basis of Sarcone\u2019s role as a public official. According to the court, \u201cthe misconduct in question did not arise out of respondent\u2019s formal execution of his public duties\u201d \u2014 which is true to the extent he legally has no public duties, though the whole thing arrived on the public\u2019s doorstep because Sarcone put out an official U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office release.<\/p>\n

But the First Amendment argument overcame everything else. The court reminded everyone that \u201cattorney disciplinary proceedings have historically taken place in a public forum\u201d and that \u201cthe primary concern of a disciplinary proceeding is the protection of the public in its reliance on the integrity and responsibility of the legal profession.\u201d <\/p>\n

And while Sarcone\u2019s continued presence in the Northern District office also undermines the public\u2019s reliance on the integrity and responsibility of the legal profession, getting some transparency about his professional misconduct goes a small way toward repairing the damage.<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Another Day, Another Fake MAGA Prosecutor<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Court Orders Grievance Committee To Stop Hiding Punishment It Imposed On Fake U.S. Attorney John Sarcone<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Will Waldron\/Albany Times Union via Getty Images) John Sarcone is, for all intents and purposes, running the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Northern District of New York, even though he is very much NOT the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York. The Trump administration lists him as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":165802,"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-165809","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\/165809","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=165809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}