A federal appeals court ruled the Trump Justice Department’s favorite trick for keeping unconfirmed prosecutors in power is flat-out illegal.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order Monday that former Attorney General Pam Bondi couldn’t legally install Sigal Chattah as Nevada’s acting U.S. attorney by simply naming her “first assistant” to an already-vacant office after her 120-day interim appointment expired. The court disqualified Chattah from supervising prosecutions against three Nevada defendants, ruling the maneuver violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act’s strict limits on bypassing Senate confirmation.
“The Attorney General cannot do so,” the panel wrote.
The court also rejected DOJ’s fallback argument that Bondi simply delegated all of the U.S. attorney’s powers to Chattah directly, ruling federal law doesn’t allow handing one person the office’s entire authority as a workaround.
Judges across the country have now struck down nearly identical appointment schemes in cases spanning New Jersey, California, Virginia, New York and New Mexico — where Democratic senators blocked confirmation of various prosecutors using the “blue slip” procedure. Every single court to examine the tactic has ruled it violates federal law.
The first prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey was thrown out last year because the case relied on an improperly installed U.S. attorney; he has since been re-indicted on completely different charges.
The panel noted Trump has since formally nominated a different candidate, George Kelesis, for the Nevada post, suggesting even the administration recognized Chattah’s appointment couldn’t stand on its own. Despite tossing Chattah from her supervisory role, the court left the underlying indictments against the Nevada defendants intact, ruling that line prosecutors who actually signed the charging documents drew their authority directly from the attorney general, not from Chattah herself.
Chattah, a far-right MAGA figure, previously ran for attorney general of Nevada and ranted in text messages that her Black opponent deserved to be lynched, Since being appointed acting U.S. attorney, she has been accused of impropriety and political threats against critics.
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