Trump Fires U.S. Attorney Minutes After He’s Appointed

The Trump administration just sent a blunt message in its escalating fight with the courts over who gets to control powerful federal prosecutor posts.

Roger Rogoff, a former King County Superior Court judge and longtime prosecutor, was sworn in Wednesday morning as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington after federal judges in Seattle selected him for the job.

Less than an hour later, he was out.

The dramatic move unfolded as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was on Capitol Hill for his Senate confirmation hearing, where lawmakers were already grilling him over the Justice Department’s direction, independence and law enforcement priorities.

While testifying Wednesday, Blanche took to X and made clear the administration would not accept the judges’ decision.

“District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them,” Blanche wrote.

He accused judges in the Western District of Washington of abandoning what he called the “time-honored process of consultation with the administration” and said the selected U.S. attorney should be someone “qualified to serve in the administration.”

Then came the line that ended Rogoff’s short-lived tenure.

“Roger Rogoff has been fired by the President,” Blanche wrote.

Rogoff, 57, had been sworn in before 8 a.m. local time at the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle. He then headed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and asked to meet with Charles Neil Floyd, the Trump administration’s preferred choice for the position.

Floyd’s 120-day interim term had expired in February, but the administration had kept him in place by making him first assistant U.S. attorney while leaving the top job formally vacant.

As Rogoff waited in the lobby, he received an email notifying him that President Trump had removed him from office.

The sudden firing turned what could have been a quiet personnel dispute into a full-blown confrontation between the White House and the federal bench in one of the country’s bluest districts.

All 17 active and senior federal judges in the Western District of Washington had appointed Rogoff to the vacancy after opening an application process. The judges were appointed by five presidents, with 10 named by Democrats and seven by Republicans.

U.S. attorneys serve as the Justice Department’s top federal prosecutors in their districts. They are typically nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Federal law also allows the attorney general to appoint an interim U.S. attorney for 120 days. If that window expires without a confirmed nominee, district judges may appoint someone to serve until the vacancy is filled.

But the Trump administration has argued that Democratic obstruction in the narrowly divided Senate has forced it to rely on acting titles and other legal personnel maneuvers to keep its preferred law enforcement officials in place.

Courts have pushed back in several Democrat-heavy districts, including Seattle and New Jersey, setting up a larger fight over how much authority judges can wield when the executive branch has not secured Senate-confirmed nominees.

Rogoff’s firing was not brought up during Blanche’s hearing Wednesday, but the issue could become a major flashpoint when Blanche returns before the Senate on Thursday.

Democrats quickly seized on the removal.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who opposed Floyd for the Seattle U.S. attorney job, praised Rogoff and blasted the administration’s decision.

“Throughout his career, he has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to public service, and he was appointed legally by the federal judges in the Western District of Washington,” Murray said in a statement. “This administration doesn’t want to deal with advice and consent — they just want to install cronies to carry out a corrupt political agenda.”

Trump officials and allies, however, have long argued that the Senate’s advice-and-consent role should not be used by Democrats as a permanent roadblock against the president’s nominees or law enforcement agenda.

Rogoff, for his part, criticized the process that led to the standoff.

“I don’t think it’s the way to run the Department of Justice,” he told The New York Times. “When you have this sort of made up way of putting people in these positions, the process breaks down.”

He has reportedly retained an employment law firm and is considering a legal challenge to his firing.

The Seattle battle is not happening in isolation.

In New Jersey, Alina Habba resigned as the top federal prosecutor after an appeals court said she had been serving unlawfully. In Virginia, Lindsey Halligan left an acting U.S. attorney post after a judge found her appointment unlawful and dismissed indictments she had brought against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.

The administration has also fired court-appointed U.S. attorneys in other districts as it moves to keep control over key Justice Department posts.

Rogoff brought decades of legal experience to the Seattle role. He spent 20 years as a state prosecutor and six years as a federal prosecutor before becoming a state judge.

He admitted he knew the Trump administration might fire him almost immediately, but said he did not hesitate to accept the appointment.

Being U.S. attorney, he said, is “the best job there is.”

“I’m really proud of my career,” Rogoff said. “The fact that the judges of this district — most of whom I’ve spent my career appearing in front of, or trying cases against, or working with — believed that I was the right person to do this work is just really humbling and amazing.”

For the Trump administration, the message was just as clear: judges may be able to appoint a temporary U.S. attorney, but the White House believes the president still has the final say.