SEATTLE — President Donald Trump wasted no time dismissing the newly named top federal prosecutor in Seattle on Wednesday, firing him in under an hour after the region’s federal judges unanimously selected him for the role — underscoring the deepening friction between the judiciary and the White House over these influential posts.
Roger Rogoff, a former state judge with decades of experience as both a state and federal prosecutor, was sworn in before 8 a.m. at the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle. He then made his way to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he intended to meet with Charles Neil Floyd, the man whose 120-day interim appointment had expired back in February.
While waiting in the lobby, Rogoff said he received an email from the Trump administration notifying him that he had been removed from the position. He told reporters he is now consulting with attorneys about the possibility of filing a lawsuit over his dismissal.
Under normal circumstances, the president nominates U.S. attorneys — the chief federal prosecutors in each judicial district — and the Senate confirms them. Temporary appointments are an exception to that confirmation requirement. When an interim appointment runs out before a permanent nominee is confirmed, the district’s federal judges have the authority to step in and select someone for the role.
The Trump administration, however, has pushed to keep unconfirmed prosecutors in place indefinitely, often through unconventional personnel moves.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche addressed the situation in a social media post Wednesday, writing, “District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them.” He also argued that the judges who chose 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.”
Trump had originally named Floyd — a former immigration judge — as interim U.S. attorney last October, but never submitted his name to the Senate for confirmation. When Floyd’s interim term expired, the administration simply changed his job title to first assistant U.S. attorney, leaving the top position vacant. A federal appeals court panel raised doubts about the legality of that maneuver in May.
The district’s judges then opened up the position for applications and assembled a bipartisan panel to evaluate candidates. On Wednesday morning, the court — made up of 17 active and senior judges appointed by five different presidents — issued a unanimous order naming Rogoff as U.S. attorney for western Washington.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, who had previously opposed Floyd’s placement in the role, sharply criticized the rapid firing. “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,” she said in a written 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.”
This is not the first time the administration has clashed with courts over these appointments. In December, Alina Habba stepped down as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey after an appeals court ruled she had been serving unlawfully. In Virginia, Lindsey Halligan left her acting U.S. attorney post after a judge found her appointment illegal and threw out indictments she had brought against two of Trump’s political opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey. The judges in that district then appointed James Hundley, a lawyer with more than 30 years of criminal and civil experience, but the administration fired him as well. A court-appointed U.S. attorney in northern New York was also dismissed.
Rogoff, who spent 20 years as a state prosecutor and six years as a federal prosecutor before becoming a state judge, said he was not surprised by the firing — he had anticipated it was a possibility going in. Still, he said he had no hesitation about stepping into the role despite the likely confrontation. Being a U.S. attorney is “the best job there is” for a prosecutor, he said.
“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.”
