Court-appointed US attorney for Seattle sues over firing by Trump

The Seattle region’s court-appointed U.S. attorney, who was abruptly fired by the White House last week hours after the announcement of his new job, sued the Trump administration Tuesday, teeing up a consequential legal fight over the president’s power to install loyalists in top prosecutorial roles without Senate approval.

Roger Rogoff, a former federal prosecutor and King County Superior Court judge, was notified of his dismissal July 15 less than an hour after a panel of district court judges unanimously appointed him to lead the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Washington.

It was only the latest instance of the White House moving swiftly to terminate a U.S. attorney appointed by the courts — not the president — since Donald Trump’s return to the White House last year. Administration officials have also abruptly fired judicially appointed prosecutors in New Jersey, Alexandria, Virginia, and Albany, New York in recent months.

But Rogoff’s suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Seattle, is the first time one of those dismissed prosecutors has launched a legal challenge to their termination.

Typically, U.S. attorneys, who wield broad prosecutorial discretion to pursue civil and criminal matters in their districts, are nominated by the president and must be confirmed by the Senate. However, when there is a long-term vacancy in the U.S. attorney role, federal law also empowers judges to select a candidate to serve in the position.

In his complaint, Rogoff argues that because of the nature of his appointment, the Trump administration did not have the authority to summarily remove him. The only legal way for the president to replace him would be for him to formally nominate a new top prosecutor in the office and for that pick to be confirmed by the Senate, his lawyer contends. Trump has not nominated anyone to fill the role.

“The President’s actions violate the law, and they ignore the protections of the Constitution of the United States,” Rogoff said in a statement. “His removal of me, like his removal of other court-appointed U.S. Attorneys across the country, is illegal and cannot stand.”

That claim will almost certainly be contested in court by the Justice Department, which has asserted the president has broad authority to select who he wants to fill key executive branch positions. A department spokesperson said Tuesday that the judges in Washington did not coordinate with Justice officials on the selection of Rogoff.

“Consistent with other firings of this type, this is wholly within the President’s authority,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

As Trump’s U.S. attorney nominees have faced headwinds in Congress, the president and the Justice Department have resorted to unorthodox maneuvers to keep the president’s picks in their posts.

Several U.S. attorney offices across the country — including those in Los Angeles; Nevada; and Albany, New York — are currently led by prosecutors the Justice Department installed first as interim U.S. attorneys, a job that is capped with a four-month term limit.

When expiration dates for those picks came and went, the department reappointed many of them to the No. 2 positions in their respective offices while leaving the top job vacant. That move allowed them to effectively remain the top federal prosecutor in their regions.

Such was the case in Seattle, when the Trump administration’s pick for interim U.S. attorney, Charles Neil Floyd, a former immigration judge, saw his temporary term lapse earlier this year. He was reappointed as the Western District of Washington’s first assistant U.S. attorney in February and has continued to lead the office since.

With the top role vacant, judges this month stepped in to select a U.S. attorney. Though courts frequently choose to reappoint a qualified interim pick to an extended term, the federal judges in the Seattle region opted to appoint Rogoff.

“In view of the longstanding United States Attorney vacancy in this District, and to ensure the integrity and effective administration of justice in this District, the Court has unanimously decided to appoint a United States Attorney,” the region’s chief judge, David G. Estudillo, said in an order at the time. “Mr. Rogoff has deep ties to the Western District of Washington and has devoted his career to serving its citizens.”

The White House dismissed Rogoff via email before the hour was out. As Rogoff’s termination was playing out last week, acting attorney general Todd Blanche was in the midst of his own contentious Senate confirmation hearing as part of his bid to become the permanent head of the Justice Department.

“District court judges can appoint a U.S. attorney and POTUS can fire them,” Blanche said in a social media post later that evening.

In his lawsuit Tuesday, Rogoff contends there were only two legal means for him to be removed from his position: Either the judges who appointed him could opt to remove him or a presidentially nominated replacement could be confirmed by the Senate.

He asked the court to declare his firing unlawful and reinstate him as the head of the U.S. attorney’s office.