Federal judges in upstate New York appointed a new U.S. attorney on Wednesday only to see him abruptly fired by the White House, in the latest clash between the Trump administration and the judiciary.
Donald T. Kinsella, 79, was appointed as U.S. attorney in the Northern District of New York in a private ceremony on Wednesday. But just hours later, Mr. Kinsella said, he received an email from a White House official telling him that he was being removed from the post.
Reached by phone on Wednesday evening, Mr. Kinsella said that he did not yet know whether the White House email carried the force of law. He said he would discuss the matter with the district judges in the morning and go from there.
The Trump administration had previously suggested it would fire any prosecutor chosen by district judges. It is unclear whether the Northern District judges will have any recourse.
Mr. Kinsella has more than 50 years of experience as a criminal and civil litigator. He is a former criminal chief of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District, which prosecutes crime in a broad swath of New York State, including Albany, Syracuse and Utica. His hiring and firing were first reported by The Times Union in Albany.
Mr. Kinsella had been set to replace John A. Sarcone III, whom a judge found last month was serving in the position unlawfully. This week, Mr. Sarcone dropped the title of acting U.S. attorney — his 210-day term had expired — and his office’s website now lists him as first assistant, typically the title of a U.S. attorney’s top deputy.
A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr. Kinsella’s appointment, or his firing. The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, has said that the Justice Department would fire any top prosecutor whom judges appointed, arguing that “the president gets to pick his U.S. attorneys.”
Federal judges have found a number of U.S. attorneys whose appointments were the result of unusual legal maneuvers by the Trump administration to be serving unlawfully. Along with Mr. Sarcone, they include Alina Habba, who was the acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, and Lindsey Halligan, formerly the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as well as a handful of others.
Ms. Habba and Ms. Halligan both left their respective offices in recent months.
Mr. Sarcone has had a difficult relationship with the judges in his district, who declined to appoint him after his interim tenure expired in July. He had no experience as a prosecutor before he was appointed. He made a series of unusual moves in office, many of which were assiduously documented by The Times Union, which Mr. Sarcone removed from his office’s press distribution list.
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in the New York region for The Times. He is focused on political influence and its effect on the rule of law in the area’s federal and state courts.
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