A federal judge signaled she is prepared to disqualify yet another improperly-appointed Trump administration prosecutor, this time in the Northern District of New York — just as he is starting to work on an investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James.
According to Politico, “During oral arguments, U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield, appointed by President Barack Obama, appeared poised not only to toss the prosecutor, John Sarcone III, from the top job, but also from other posts that might allow him to serve in the same capacity.”
“The only remedy, if one found an improper appointment, that would cure that would be disqualifying him,” said Schofield. “If I were to find that he was not properly acting as a U.S. attorney, leaving him as first assistant and the office vacant wouldn’t accomplish much.”
Sarcone, who has already enraged federal judges by publicly claiming they had extended his acting term when they hadn’t, brought a subpoena to investigate James’ civil fraud case against President Donald Trump, which resulted in a $500 million judgment that is currently being further litigated in state courts. James is fighting that subpoena by challenging Sarcone’s appointment.
If disqualified, Sarcone would join a long list of Trump-appointed federal prosecutors disqualified after a judge found their appointment had illegally circumvented federal procedures.
Other acting U.S. attorneys who have run afoul of this include Alina Habba in New Jersey, Sigal Chattah in Nevada, and Lindsey Halligan in Virginia — the latter of whom was actually trying to bring a separate criminal fraud case against James.
The DOJ is trying to secure a new indictment against James in that case, but suffered another embarrassment on Thursday as a federal grand jury in Norfolk returned a “no true bill” against the charges.
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