Trump DOJ Aims To Recharge Investigation Into Letitia James by Firing Judge Appointed Prosecutor After Only Five Hours in Job

The immediate firing by the Trump Administration of the newly appointed United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, Donald Kinsella, is a maneuver to regain White House control of an office that had launched an investigation into the Empire State’s attorney general, Letitia James, for violating President Trump’s civil rights.Mr. Kinsella, 79, was sworn in on Wednesday by a panel of federal judges who had appointed him to the role. Five hours later, he was fired by the Trump Justice Department. His termination was announced on X by the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s right hand man. Mr. Blanche declared that “Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does. See Article II of our Constitution. You are fired, Donald Kinsella.” It is not immediately clear what recourse the judges have.Mr. Sarcone had been pursuing an investigation, before a grand jury, into whether Ms. James illegally violated Mr. Trump’s civil rights in her civil fraud case against him, his business, and his two adult sons. In 2024 she secured a $500 million judgment in that case, in which she accused the Trumps of misstating some property values in order to get more favorable terms from lenders and insurers. The gargantuan punishment was overturned when an appeals court found that it was so “excessive” as to violate the Constitution. Ms. James’ critics in New York City criticized her for what they called a politicized prosecution that set a terrible precedent for how the State of New York treated its corporate citizens. For his part, Mr. Trump moved to Florida.The issue of who appoints prosecutors in the absence of confirmation by the Senate — the only path to a permanent post — has roiled President Trump’s effort to install his handpicked United States attorneys. A Senate convention known as “blue slipping” allows Democratic senators in blue states to have veto power over U.S. attorney appointments. This has severely hampered the DOJ’s efforts to prosecute elected Democrats in blue states like New York, New Jersey and Virginia. Mr. Kinsella’s predecessor, John Sarcone, who’d been appointed by Mr. Trump, was disqualified last month when a federal judge who was appointed by President Obama found that he “was not lawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney.”Federal statute appears to mandate that the president has the power to appoint federal prosecutors, on a temporary basis, to 120-day terms. After that period ends, the task of extending that tenure or denying it and appointing a new United States attorney falls to the federal judge in the district where the prosecutor was exerting authority. The judges in Northern New York, overwhelmingly appointed by Democratic judges, declined to keep on Mr. Sarcone.The challenge to Mr. Sarcone’s appointment came from none other than Ms. James. She secured his disqualification in an effort to quash subpoenas that were issued by Mr. Sarcone as part of his civil rights investigation.Mr. Sarcone was also investigating whether Ms. James violated the civil rights of the National Rifle Association. She won a jury verdict against the gun group — which was headquartered in New York — that required it to pay millions in fines and overhaul its governance structure. Judge Laura Schofield found that when the subpoenas against Ms. James were issued, “Mr. Sarcone “was not lawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney. Any of his past or future acts taken in that capacity are void or voidable.” Mr. Sarcone is now officially listed as First Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, a position described by the DOJ as “the chief federal law enforcement officer responsible for all federal criminal prosecutions and civil litigation involving the United States in the Northern District of New York.” Ms. James, who ran for office in 2018 vowing to “shine a bright light” into Mr. Trump’s real estate dealings, has called him an “illegitimate president.” Ms. Bondi’s DOJ has charged her with bank and mortgage fraud relating to a loan she secured toward a modest Norfolk home. That case, too, though, was dismissed after the lead prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was ruled to have been unlawfully appointed under circumstances similar to Mr. Sarcone.The DOJ has appealed that ruling, though it has already lost a similar appeal in yet another case involving prosecutorial disqualification — that of the erstwhile United States attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba. She is, like Ms. Halligan, an alumna, of Mr. Trump’s defense teams who lacked any experience as a prosecutor. The Third United State Appeals Circuit backed a trial judge, Matthew Brann, in ruling that Ms. Habba was unlawfully appointed by Ms. Bondi.Like Ms. Halligan and Mr. Sarcone, Ms. Habba also engaged in legal proceedings against high-profile Democrats. She brought charges, following a melee outside an ICE facility, against the mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, as well as Congresswoman LaMonica McIver. The case against Mr. Baraka was dropped, but the one against Ms. McIver is ongoing. Earlier this week, Ms. McIver asked the acting director of ICE during a congressional hearing if, as a Christian, he realized he was going to hell. Due in part to the blue slipping tactic, Democrats are blocking confirmation votes for many of Mr. Trump’s United States attorney nominees, meaning that they are languishing in limbo. The issue could come to a head at the Supreme Court, where the administration could argue that the role of judges in appointing prosecutors violates executive prerogative.

Trump DOJ Aims To Recharge Investigation Into Letitia James by Firing Judge Appointed Prosecutor After Only Five Hours in Job

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