The federal bench in the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday chose James W. Hundley, a veteran defense lawyer, to serve as the interim U.S. attorney in the district, replacing the Trump loyalist who resigned last month after a judge ruled that she had been put into her post unlawfully.
But a mere two hours after Mr. Hundley was appointed to the job, he was abruptly fired in a social media post by Todd Blanche, the No. 2 official in the Justice Department.
It was the second time this month that Mr. Blanche, the deputy attorney general who once served as a defense lawyer to the president, had gotten rid of a top federal prosecutor appointed by federal judges.
“Here we go again,” Mr. Blanche wrote in a post that offered a slanted interpretation of the law and slavishly echoed a line that the president was famous for using during his days as a reality TV star. “EDVA judges do not pick our US Attorney. POTUS does. James Hundley, you’re fired!”
The law does in fact permit federal judges to appoint interim U.S. attorneys when their predecessors are forced to leave their post or come to the end of their 120-day terms. In recent months, federal judges across the country have determined that several U.S. attorneys installed by the Trump administration were done so in violation of both the law and the Constitution through a series of unusual legal maneuvers.
Just last week, Mr. Blanche took almost identical steps in firing Donald T. Kinsella, a longtime lawyer in upstate New York, just hours after federal judges there appointed him as the interim U.S. attorney in Albany.
“Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does,” Mr. Blanche wrote then in a social media post. “See Article II of our Constitution. You are fired, Donald Kinsella.”
The firing of Mr. Hundley, a widely respected lawyer with more than 35 years of experience as a litigator in Virginia, was only the latest effort by the Trump administration to stick its finger in the eye of the federal judiciary. Mr. Blanche’s blatant — almost gleeful — move to flout the authority of the judges in Virginia came at a moment when the administration has been accused of violating scores of judicial orders in places like New Jersey and Minnesota — most of them related to Mr. Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda.
Earlier on Friday, Mr. Trump raged against members of the Supreme Court who had rejected his efforts to impose expansive tariffs by claiming emergency powers to regulate the economy.
“I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” the president said at a news conference.
Mr. Hundley had initially been chosen by the judges to replace Lindsey Halligan, another former defense lawyer for Mr. Trump, who was put in charge of the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia despite her lack of experience as a prosecutor after her predecessor, Erik S. Siebert, was forced out by the president. Mr. Siebert drew Mr. Trump’s ire after he refused to bring charges against two of the president’s political adversaries: James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general.
Four days after she took over for Mr. Siebert, Ms. Halligan went to a grand jury and obtained an indictment of Mr. Comey. Two weeks later, she secured an indictment of Ms. James. Both cases were ultimately dismissed when a federal judge determined that Ms. Halligan had been unlawfully appointed to replace Mr. Siebert.
The Justice Department is appealing the dismissals.
In a brief order appointing Mr. Hundley, M. Hannah Lauck, the chief federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia, said that he had spent years running his own law firm, which has “a prominent criminal and civil litigation practice.” Judge Lauck also noted that Mr. Hundley had successfully argued cases in front of the Supreme Court and had served as a guest lecturer at local law schools as well as the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Education.
Mr. Hundley’s father, William, was also a prominent lawyer, most famous for representing people like Attorney General John N. Mitchell in his Watergate trial, and the lawyer Vernon E. Jordan Jr., a close aide to former President Bill Clinton.
Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former President Donald J. Trump.
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