{"id":766339,"date":"2026-07-16T13:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T13:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/766339\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T13:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T13:41:13","slug":"trump-fires-new-us-attorney-in-seattle-an-hour-after-federal-judges-appoint-him-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/766339\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump fires new US attorney in Seattle an hour after federal judges appoint him | Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a> fired the new top federal prosecutor in Seattle<\/a> on Wednesday less than an hour after the attorney was unanimously appointed by the federal judges in the district, highlighting tensions between the courts and the president over the powerful positions.<\/p>\n

Roger Rogoff, a former judge and veteran state and federal prosecutor, was sworn in as US attorney before 8am at the US courthouse in downtown Seattle<\/a>. In a phone interview, he said he then went to the US attorney\u2019s office and asked to meet with Charles Neil Floyd, whose 120-day interim term in the position ended in February.<\/p>\n

As he waited in a lobby, Rogoff said, he received an email from the Trump administration<\/a> informing him he\u2019d been removed from the position. He is consulting with other lawyers about suing over his firing, he said.<\/p>\n

Presidents normally appoint US attorneys, the top federal prosecutors in each judicial district. The positions require Senate confirmation, except in temporary appointments. When temporary appointments expire before a nominee is confirmed, the judges in a judicial district can name a US attorney.<\/p>\n

But under Trump, the justice department has sought to leave unconfirmed prosecutors in their positions indefinitely, often through novel personnel maneuvers.<\/p>\n

\u201cDistrict court judges can appoint a temporary US attorney, and [the president] can fire them,\u201d the acting US attorney general, Todd Blanche, said in a social media post on Wednesday. He added that the judges who appointed Rogoff \u201cabandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration so that the selected US attorney is qualified to serve in the administration\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump named Floyd, who previously served as an immigration judge, interim US attorney last October but never forwarded his nomination to the Senate. When Floyd\u2019s time as interim US attorney expired, Trump simply shifted his title, a tactic the administration has also tried in other federal judicial districts: he was named him first assistant US attorney, while the top post was left empty.<\/p>\n

In May, a US appeals court panel expressed skepticism<\/a> that the maneuver was legal. The federal judges in the city decided to take applications for the position, and they appointed a bipartisan panel to review the applications.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning the court \u2013 comprising 17 active and senior judges appointed by five presidents \u2013 issued its unanimous order naming Rogoff the US attorney for western Washington.<\/p>\n

Patty Murray, a US senator from Washington, who had opposed Floyd for the US attorney job, blasted Rogoff\u2019s quick firing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout his career, he has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to public service, and he was appointed legally by the federal judges in the western district of Washington,\u201d the senator said in a written statement. \u201cThis administration doesn\u2019t want to deal with advice and consent \u2013 they just want to install cronies to carry out a corrupt political agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December, Alina Habba<\/a> resigned<\/a> as the top federal prosecutor for New Jersey after an appeals court said she had been serving in the post unlawfully<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lindsey Halligan, who pursued indictments<\/a> against a pair of Trump\u2019s adversaries<\/a>, left her position as an acting US attorney in Virginia after a judge concluded<\/a> her appointment was unlawful and that indictments she brought against the New York attorney general, Letitia James, and the former FBI director James Comey must be dismissed.<\/p>\n

The judges there named James Hundley, who had handled criminal and civil cases for more than 30 years, as US attorney, but the Trump administration fired him. It also fired a court-appointed US attorney<\/a> in northern New York.<\/p>\n

Rogoff, who spent 20 years as a state prosecutor and six as a federal prosecutor before becoming a state judge, said he knew the administration might fire him immediately. But he said he had no qualms about the potential conflict he was walking into. Being US attorney is \u201cthe best job there is\u201d for a prosecutor, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of my career,\u201d Rogoff said. \u201cThe fact that the judges of this district \u2013 most of whom I\u2019ve spent my career appearing in front of, or trying cases against, or working with \u2013 believed that I was the right person to do this work is just really humbling and amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump fired the new top federal prosecutor in Seattle on Wednesday less than an hour after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-766339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}