Federal Judge Blocks Trump From Firing Court-Appointed U.S. Attorney in Seattle

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump from removing the court-appointed U.S. attorney for Western Washington, ruling that the president lacked authority to unilaterally fire Roger Rogoff immediately after federal judges selected him for the position.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, granted Rogoff a preliminary injunction and determined that he has legally occupied the U.S. attorney position since taking the oath of office July 15. “The president cannot unilaterally fire a United States attorney appointed by the district court,” Bastian said from the bench, according to Politico.

Bastian said allowing such a removal “would upend the framework created by the Constitution and the statutes, which together balance the president’s right to appoint and the Senate’s right to confirm.” The ruling temporarily restores Rogoff as the chief federal prosecutor for the Seattle-based Western District of Washington and bars the administration from obstructing him while the litigation continues. The Justice Department disagrees with the decision and intends to appeal.

The dispute began after Charles Neil Floyd’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney expired. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Floyd to the position in September 2025, and he was sworn in Oct. 6. Federal law generally limits an attorney general-appointed interim U.S. attorney to 120 days unless a presidential nominee is confirmed or the district court appoints someone to fill the vacancy.

Trump had not nominated Floyd to the Senate before his interim term expired in February. Floyd was instead appointed first assistant U.S. attorney and continued leading the office in an acting capacity. The district’s federal judges subsequently began their own selection process under 28 U.S.C. § 546(d) and unanimously chose Rogoff in July.

Rogoff is a former federal prosecutor and King County Superior Court judge who was twice appointed to Washington state positions by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee. Inslee first appointed him to the state bench in 2013 and later selected him to lead Washington’s Office of Independent Investigations.

Less than an hour after Rogoff was sworn in as U.S. attorney July 15, he received notice from the Executive Office of the President that Trump had removed him. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche publicly defended the action.

“District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them,” Blanche said at the time. “WDWA judges abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration so that the selected U.S. Attorney is qualified to serve in the administration.”

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

Rogoff responded by filing suit July 21 against Trump, the Executive Office of the President, Blanche and the Justice Department. His attorneys argued that federal law permits a judicially appointed U.S. attorney to remain in office until the court removes that person or a presidential nominee is confirmed by the Senate. They also contended that allowing the administration to remove judicial appointees and place first assistants in charge indefinitely could circumvent the Senate’s constitutional advice-and-consent role.

Bastian sided with Rogoff at this stage of the case and also rejected the administration’s effort to treat Floyd as the office’s lawful leader, finding that authority had been improperly granted to him after Rogoff took office. The preliminary injunction does not represent a final resolution of the lawsuit, and the administration can challenge Bastian’s reasoning on appeal.

The case centers on an unusual intersection of presidential removal authority and the statute allowing federal judges to appoint U.S. attorneys when an executive-branch interim appointment expires without a Senate-confirmed successor. The Trump administration argues that Article II gives the president authority to remove federal prosecutors, while Rogoff maintains that Congress lawfully gave courts temporary appointment authority and did not give the president unilateral removal power over those judicial selections.

The administration has faced similar disputes involving court-appointed federal prosecutors elsewhere in the country, but Rogoff’s case is the first successful challenge in which a removed judicially appointed U.S. attorney obtained reinstatement.

Trump has since nominated Pete Serrano, who has led the U.S. attorney’s office for Eastern Washington, to become the Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney for the Western District. If Serrano is confirmed, his appointment would replace the temporary arrangement at the center of Rogoff’s lawsuit.

For now, Bastian’s ruling leaves Rogoff in control of the Western District of Washington U.S. Attorney’s Office while the administration prepares its appeal, setting up a potentially significant test of how far presidential removal power extends when federal judges — rather than the executive branch — make a temporary U.S. attorney appointment.