Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
Judge Bars U.S. Attorney in Albany From Inquiry Into Letitia James
Ms. James, New York’s attorney general, had been seeking to block a Justice Department investigation into her office by challenging the legitimacy of the U.S. attorney, John A. Sarcone III.
by https://www.nytimes.com/by/jonah-e-bromwich · NY TimesA judge on Thursday barred the top federal prosecutor in Albany from any further involvement with a civil rights investigation into the New York attorney general, Letitia James, in another setback for the Trump administration as it pursues Ms. James.
The U.S. attorney, John A. Sarcone III, remains in charge of the prosecutor’s office in upstate New York for now, though the decision by the judge, Lorna G. Schofield, opens the possibility of Mr. Sarcone being removed completely from the post.
Mr. Sarcone can no longer lead the investigation after lawyers for Ms. James challenged the legitimacy of his appointment as they sought to quash subpoenas related to the civil rights investigation, one of several inquiries that the Justice Department has mounted against Ms. James.
Judge Schofield said in an order Thursday that Mr. Sarcone “was not lawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney when the subpoenas were issued.”
The judge blocked the subpoenas, but said that the federal government could seek to reissue them “at the direction of a lawfully authorized attorney.”
Mr. Sarcone referred a reporter to the Justice Department’s press office in Washington when asked for comment. A spokesman for the department did not immediately respond.
“This decision is an important win for the rule of law and we will continue to defend our office’s successful litigation from this administration’s political attacks,” a spokesman for Ms. James said.
The disqualification of Mr. Sarcone from the case is the second time in three months that a judge has found a U.S. attorney to have been illegitimately installed by the Trump administration, which in the process has dealt a blow to an investigation into Ms. James.
Ms. James was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia in October over bank fraud. She called the charges baseless and vowed to fight them. But the charges were thrown out when a judge found that the U.S. attorney in that district, Lindsey Halligan, has also been appointed invalidly. Since then, two grand juries have rejected proposed charges against Ms. James.
The civil rights investigation into Ms. James, which is separate, began in August when Mr. Sarcone sent her office the pair of subpoenas. One was related to a civil fraud case that Ms. James had brought against Mr. Trump and the other asked for material related to her long-running case against the National Rifle Association.
Ms. James moved to block the subpoenas, in part by seeking Mr. Sarcone’s disqualification, though her lawyers did not explicitly pursue his removal from office. But Judge Schofield’s ruling appears to open the door to the possibility of Mr. Sarcone being disqualified in the same manner as Ms. Halligan and a number of other U.S. attorneys installed by the Trump administration.
“Mr. Sarcone is not lawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney,” the judge wrote. “Any of his past or future acts taken in that capacity are void or voidable as they would rest on authority Mr. Sarcone does not lawfully have.”
Devlin Barrett contributed reporting.