Judge cancels Trump’s firing of U.S. attorney in Seattle
by Stephen Dinan · The Washington TimesA federal judge issued an injunction Thursday ordering a fired U.S. attorney back on the job and sidelining the person the Trump administration had tried to install as the top prosecutor in western Washington.
The judges in the Western District of Washington had voted over the summer to put Roger Rogoff in the job. An hour after he was sworn in, however, President Trump sent a notice firing him.
U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian, an Obama appointee from the courts in eastern Washington, said Mr. Trump’s move violated the law.
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He said the law specifically gives federal judges the power to select a prosecutor in cases where a vacancy has gone on long enough.
“Allowing the president to fire a court-appointed U.S. attorney would upend the framework created by the Constitution and the statutory framework, which together balances the president’s right to appoint and the Senate’s right to confirm,” the judge wrote.
He said Mr. Trump has the power to remove officers he himself installed, but he does not automatically have the power to boot those he didn’t pick.
The Justice Department immediately filed an appeal Thursday evening.
The case is part of a string of instances where Mr. Trump has fired U.S. attorneys who resisted presidential priorities, then tried to install people more willing to do his will.
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Prosecutors in New Jersey and Virginia were deemed illegally serving.
The White House said Mr. Trump must wield executive power and that includes the power to prosecute. Having people who aren’t his picks in office threatens to hinder his exercise of that power.
But Judge Bastian said the law says courts have some appointment power, too, when it comes to prosecutors and vacancies.
Mr. Trump has recently nominated Simon Peter Serrano to be the U.S. attorney for western Washington, and he tapped Charles Neil Floyd to act as acting U.S. attorney.
Judge Bastian said neither of those men can serve.
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Mr. Rogoff was previously sworn in over the summer, and Judge Bastian said that remains in effect.
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Stephen Dinan
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