Trump immediately fires the new court-appointed top prosecutor in Seattle

By — Gene Johnson, Associated Press Gene Johnson, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-immediately-fires-the-new-court-appointed-top-prosecutor-in-seattle Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Trump immediately fires the new court-appointed top prosecutor in Seattle Politics Jul 16, 2026 12:43 PM EDT SEATTLE (AP) — President Donald Trump fired the new top U.S. prosecutor in Seattle on Wednesday less than an hour after the attorney was unanimously appointed by the federal judges in the district, highlighting tensions between the courts and the president over the powerful positions. Roger Rogoff, a former judge and veteran state and federal prosecutor, was sworn in as U.S. attorney before 8 a.m. at the U.S. courthouse in downtown Seattle. In a phone interview, he said he then went to the U.S. Attorney's Office and asked to meet with Charles Neil Floyd, whose 120-day interim term in the position ended in February. As he waited in a lobby, Rogoff said, he received an email from the Trump administration informing him he'd been removed. He is consulting with other lawyers about suing over his firing, he said. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Presidents normally appoint U.S. attorneys, the top federal prosecutor in each judicial district. The positions require Senate confirmation, except in temporary appointments. When temporary appointments expire before a nominee is confirmed, the judges in a judicial district can name a U.S. attorney. But under Trump, the Justice Department has sought to leave unconfirmed prosecutors in their positions indefinitely, often through novel personnel maneuvers. "District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them," Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a social media post Wednesday. He added that the judges who appointed Rogoff "abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration so that the selected U.S. Attorney is qualified to serve in the administration." WATCH: Ex-DOJ officials reflect on Trump's transformation of the institution Trump named Floyd, who previously served as an immigration judge, interim U.S. attorney last October but never forwarded his nomination to the Senate. When Floyd's time as interim U.S. attorney expired, Trump simply shifted his title, a tactic the administration has also tried in other federal judicial districts: It named him first assistant U.S. attorney, while leaving the top post empty. In May, a U.S. appeals court panel expressed skepticism that the maneuver was legal. The federal judges in the city decided to take applications for the position, and it appointed a bipartisan panel to review the applications. READ MORE: How the Trump administration erased centuries of Justice Department experience On Wednesday morning the court — compris