President Trump fired a court-appointed U.S. attorney in Seattle less than an hour after federal judges swore him in Wednesday, reasserting the constitutional authority of the executive branch over a judiciary that tried to install its own top federal prosecutor without the president or the Senate.
The clash cuts to the heart of who controls federal law enforcement. U.S. attorneys are executive branch officials — nominated by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and answerable to the electorate through both. On Wednesday, 17 federal judges in the Western District of Washington tried to bypass that chain of accountability entirely, unanimously appointing longtime prosecutor Roger Rogoff to the post. The president removed him within minutes.
Rogoff, a former King County Superior Court judge and former director of Washington's Office of Independent Investigations, was sworn in before 8 a.m. He told KOMO News it was the "greatest hour in my life." Then came an email titled "A Message From the President" informing him he was fired.
The judges acted after the previous interim U.S. attorney, Charles Neil Floyd, saw his 120-day interim appointment expire in February. Rather than send Floyd's nomination to the Senate, the administration shifted his title to "first assistant U.S. attorney" and left the top post vacant — a maneuver a federal appeals court panel expressed skepticism about in May, according to NBC News.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made the administration's position plain on X: "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."
Rogoff told KOMO News the administration had known about his pending appointment for two weeks and never responded to requests for a conversation. He said he believes the firing was "most likely unlawful" and is consulting with lawyers about a suit.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., blasted the removal, claiming the administration doesn't want "advice and consent" and wants to "install cronies to carry out a corrupt political agenda," NBC News reported.
But the constitutional math is straightforward. Article II vests executive power in the president. Federal prosecutors are executive officers. The statute allowing judges to make temporary appointments exists to fill vacancies — not to let the judiciary handpick who enforces federal law when the president and Senate haven't acted. Rogoff himself told KOMO the office has been without a "constitutionally appointed" U.S. attorney for three years, adding that if Trump appointed someone confirmed by the Senate, he would "be cheering the rule of law."
NBC News framed the firing as part of a pattern of the administration using "novel personnel maneuvers" to keep unconfirmed prosecutors in place. What NBC buried: the judges' appointment was itself a maneuver to seize an executive-branch role — and the same pattern has played out in New Jersey and Virginia, where courts likewise tried to install their own picks after ruling acting appointments unlawful.
The judges who appointed Rogoff declined to comment. Rogoff says he may sue. The open question: whether a temporary vacancy statute gives the courts a foothold to choose who prosecutes federal cases — or whether that power stays where the Constitution puts it, with an elected president and the senators who answer to voters.
