Trump Tactics Leave Federal Prosecutors’ Offices Rudderless

Prominent federal prosecutors' offices around the country are operating without permanent leaders, as the Trump administration keeps trying to install loyalists — and courts keep rejecting them.

Some offices have seen as many as three (northern district of New York), four (eastern district of Virginia) or even five (New Jersey) different U.S. attorneys or leadership structures in the past year. In New York and Virginia, top prosecutors were in place for mere hours. In some instances, the Trump administration’s moves have directly undermined active investigations or cases, by prompting judges to quash subpoenas and even dismiss high-profile indictments in addition to disqualifying prosecutors.

And the fallout after adverse rulings continues: Prosecutors in New Jersey have been forced to seek superseding indictments in cases brought under a disqualified U.S. attorney, in order to prevent those cases from being dismissed. And a batch of indictments remains under threat in Nevada, where defendants are asking an appeals court to throw out cases brought under a disqualified U.S. attorney.

In district after district, the administration has tried to install staunch allies as U.S. attorneys without getting them confirmed by the Senate, and then keep them there past their temporary term. And when judges insist their maneuvers are invalid and the clock has run out, the administration gives the rejected prosecutor the No. 2 spot, instead — and says the No. 2 is now the one running the office.

According to a POLITICO analysis, at least nine districts are now being led indefinitely by what is supposed to be the second in command — the first assistant U.S. attorney or the office’s equivalent — in most cases because a federal judge has disqualified them from holding the top U.S. attorney title. A 10th district, the Nevada U.S. Attorney’s Office, is currently led by a first assistant — who was disqualified by a federal judge from holding the top job — while the Senate considers Trump’s nominee to run the office permanently.

Last week in New Jersey, the state’s district court judges and the Trump administration appeared to strike a deal on who will lead the U.S. attorney’s office there full-time, selecting a career prosecutor, Robert Frazer. That came on the heels of a federal judge ordering an inquiry into an unprecedented arrangement, installed by the administration, of a trio of prosecutors leading the office. An appeals court ruled in December that the administration’s first choice, Alina Habba, had been illegally appointed.

But it’s not clear that even Frazer will remain in place. On Friday, his office told a federal judge that a defendant is moving to disqualify him, arguing that the judges’ selection was invalid.

Still, the agreement on a permanent leader in New Jersey appears to be an outlier. First assistant U.S. attorneys are running point in districts in Nevada, Wisconsin, California, New York, New Mexico, Washington, Vermont and Virginia. In most of those cases, the Trump administration simply moved prosecutors it placed in interim U.S. attorney roles into the No. 2 slot after judges ruled they were invalidly serving.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Bill Essayli, who was disqualified by a federal judge in October from serving as acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, is still running the office after Attorney General Pam Bondi made him first assistant and U.S. District Judge Michael Seabright permitted him to continue in that capacity. Attorneys from the federal defenders office asked Seabright to reverse his decision, but the judge declined to do so.

Similarly, John Sarcone remains in charge in the Northern District of New York with Bondi’s blessing even after a federal judge ruled in January that he was unlawfully appointed. The judge also quashed subpoenas Sarcone had issued to New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Judges in the district attempted to install their own choice, Donald Kinsella, as U.S. attorney — as courts usually do when the White House hasn’t filled a vacancy. But the Trump administration immediately fired him, leaving Sarcone as the de facto head.

In many cases, the Trump administration hasn’t nominated its preferred choice of U.S. attorney — and instead installed them using workarounds — because their selection doesn’t have the support of the home-state senators.

In the eastern district of Washington, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray has vowed to block the office’s No. 2, Pete Serrano, if he were to be nominated to the top job full-time.

“The Trump administration is attempting a transparent end run around the Constitution and Congress by appointing Pete Serrano to a position he is not qualified to hold after the Eastern District declined to extend his tenure as U.S. Attorney,” she said.

And tensions are rising between the Trump administration and the judges of the Western District of Washington. In January, the chief judge, David G. Estudillo, announced that if Trump didn’t nominate someone to serve as the permanent U.S. attorney in the district, the court would appoint his replacement. Instead, the administration put in place former interim U.S. attorney Charles Neil Floyd as first assistant. Earlier this month, Estudillo said the court is processing applications for U.S. attorney, naming a panelof people to evaluate the applicants.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche denounced the move on social media, and while he appeared to conflate the members of the panel with the candidates themselves, he nevertheless indicated the Trump administration plans to fire the judges’ pick, as it has done in several other districts.

“These candidates do not have the support of POTUS,” Blanche wrote, “and I expect they will suffer the same fate as others have when judges ignore Article II.”

In some offices, the administration has declined to select leaders. The Trump administration doesn’t appear to have appointed anyone to be Vermont U.S. attorney in an acting or interim capacity — or nominated anyone to the job full-time — since the start of Trump’s second term.

Michael Drescher had been leading the office as first assistant, but he left in early January after Gov. Phil Scott appointed him to the state supreme court. Now the first assistant role is filled by Jonathan Ophardt, a longtime federal prosecutor.

The Eastern District of Virginia is being run not by a U.S. attorney or even a first assistant, but an executive assistant U.S. attorney, Frank Bradsher, who appears to have been elevated by virtue of a leadership vacuum.

After Erik Siebert resigned as U.S. attorney amid pressure by the administration to indict former FBI Director James Comey and James, Bondi installed Trump ally Lindsey Halligan in an interim capacity. But a federal judge ruled Halligan had been illegally appointed and tossed indictments she secured against Comey and James.

The judges of the district in February appointed their choice, James Hundley, to lead the office, but hours after he was installed, Blanche fired him via social media, writing: “EDVA judges do not pick our US Attorney. POTUS does. James Hundley, you’re fired!”