ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TAN: Trump Fires U.S. Attorney After 54 Minutes, Replaces Him With Fake Prosecutor (Joe Patrice, Above the Law blog, July 16, 2026)

Trump Fires U.S. Attorney After 54 Minutes, Replaces Him With Fake Prosecutor

(Joe Patrice, Above the Law blog, July 16, 2026

From Above the Law:

Trump Fires U.S. Attorney After 54 Minutes, Replaces Him With Fake Prosecutor

The Trump administration's USAO shell game continues. It's going to lose again.

By Joe Patrice on July 16, 2026 5:09 pm

(Photo by DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)

Roger Rogoff was the United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington for 54 minutes.

Rogoff was sworn in a little before 8 a.m. Wednesday at the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle. He walked over to the U.S. Attorney’s office to meet the man he legally just replaced — interim selection Charles Neil Floyd, who was not only never confirmed by the Senate, but never even nominated for the job. Floyd’s tenure as an interim appointment is statutorily capped at 120 days, and with no legal replacement forthcoming from the Trump administration, the district’s judges exercised their legal right to pick a successor to keep the federal criminal justice system running.

While Rogoff was waiting, an email arrived from the Trump administration informing him that he had been removed.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche went on X — because all serious and professional business is conducted on a website dedicated to racial slurs and computer generated child porn — to explain the situation:

District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them. 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.

You don’t need me to tell you that this is bullshit, but since I’m here: this is bullshit.

There’s no “time-honored” consultation process, because the courts only have the power to appoint a U.S. Attorney when the administration has totally abdicated its responsibility to fill the role. Indeed, if the administration could influence this decision, it defeats the purpose of the law. The statutory scheme presumes the president is dutifully sending nominations to the Senate, and if those fail — and exceed the interim appointment window — the courts step in until the president CAN find a confirmable nominee. The purpose of this regime is to make sure federal prosecutions can continue without upsetting the constitutional apple cart: The separation of powers dividing roles between the president and Senate is respected and, if that breaks down, neither branch hijacks the power to appoint someone while that battle rages.