A federal judge on Tuesday disqualified Nevada’s top federal prosecutor from handling cases, a rebuke to the Trump administration’s attempts to circumvent federal appointment procedures put in place by Congress.
Judge David G. Campbell of the Federal District Court in Arizona, who was temporarily assigned to handle the case in Nevada, said that the prosecutor, Sigal Chattah, was “not validly serving as acting U.S. attorney” and that her involvement in cases “would be unlawful.”
Challenges to her appointment had been brought in four different cases. The judge disqualified her from supervising the cases or “any attorneys in the handling of these cases.”
Ms. Chattah’s office declined to comment on the ruling.
Ms. Chattah is a Republican activist and a supporter of President Trump who was previously a lawyer for the state Republican Party. She was also the party’s unsuccessful candidate for attorney general in 2022.
As a private lawyer, Ms. Chattah has sued on behalf of a client seeking to decriminalize the harassment of election workers. Last month, she said that she would be “revisiting election cases” as the state’s top federal prosecutor, adding that a broad election inquiry was in the works.
In late July, the Trump administration decided to extend the terms of Ms. Chattah in Nevada and Bill Essayli in Southern California, who had initially been appointed “interim” U.S. attorneys. Interim appointments expire after 120 days, but the administration extended their terms by naming them both acting U.S. attorneys. Permanent U.S. attorney appointments typically require approval either by the U.S. Senate or by local federal judges. Public defenders in Nevada and California had challenged Ms. Chattah’s and Mr. Essayli’s appointments.
“The procedure used by the government to appoint Ms. Chattah was never intended by Congress,” Judge Campbell wrote in his ruling.
In August, a different federal judge rejected a similar maneuver in New Jersey, ruling that the acting U.S. attorney there, Alina Habba, had been serving without legal authority. The judge delayed an order disqualifying Ms. Habba from participating in ongoing cases, pending appeal.
During a hearing in Las Vegas last week related to the efforts to disqualify Ms. Chattah, federal prosecutors and public defenders clashed over the fine print of laws dictating the rules for appointments, which are not always straightforward. Defense lawyers sought to dismiss four pending criminal cases based on the circumstances of Ms. Chattah’s appointment, including one that involves an undocumented immigrant who is facing drug and gun charges, and another involving a felon accused of carrying a firearm.
An assistant U.S. attorney, Daniel Schiess, argued in those cases that “the defendants have suffered no harm whatsoever, none, from any of the issues involving appointments” and noted that the indictments had been signed by staff prosecutors, not Ms. Chattah herself. But an assistant federal public defender, Jeremy Baron, argued that the lack of a legitimately appointed U.S. attorney potentially puts at risk all prosecutions brought by the office after the change in Ms. Chattah’s status in July.
On Tuesday, Judge Campbell did not dismiss the cases but said that “the government attorneys handling these cases shall, within seven days of this order, file statements in the docket that they are not being supervised by Ms. Chattah in their prosecution of these cases.”
The Trump administration has moved to stock the Justice Department with loyalists amid increasing pressure by Mr. Trump to retaliate against those who have brought cases against him or who are perceived as his enemies. Last week, James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, was indicted over the objection of career prosecutors who found insufficient evidence to support the charges, and Mr. Trump said on Sunday that he believed it was possible that his Justice Department could be investigating another former F.B.I. director he dislikes, Christopher A. Wray.
Mr. Trump has also criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi for not moving more aggressively to prosecute Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, and Senator Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California. And federal investigators have subpoenaed travel records related to Fani T. Willis, a Georgia district attorney who charged Mr. Trump in 2023 in an election interference case that has since stalled.
Danny Hakim is a reporter on the Investigations team at The Times, focused primarily on politics.
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