On October 27, 2026, U.S. District Judge Michael Seabright ruled that Bill Essayli, the Trump administration's top federal prosecutor in the Central District of California, “is unlawfully serving” as a de facto U.S. attorney and “is disqualified from participating in or supervising the prosecutions of Ramirez and Tran,” CBS Los Angeles reported. The two cases charge Jaime Hector Ramirez with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and Tu Anh Tran with possessing property stolen from an interstate or foreign shipment.
The order does not take effect at once. Seabright delayed it and gave the government five business days to seek a stay pending appeal, and he declined to dismiss either indictment. The Justice Department has said it intends to appeal, the Guardian reported.
Essayli, a former Republican state lawmaker and Trump ally, became interim U.S. attorney in April 2025 but was never formally nominated, which let him lead the office without Senate confirmation, according to the Guardian. When the interim appointment ended, the administration gave him an acting title and then kept him on as first assistant after a judge ruled he was unlawfully serving; CBS reported that Seabright made a similar ruling last year.
This time Seabright relied on appeals court rulings that two other Trump administration prosecutors, John Sarcone in Albany and Sigal Chattah in Nevada, were unlawfully appointed because they were not serving as first assistant when the U.S. attorney post became vacant. The government appealed those cases to the Supreme Court earlier this month, CBS reported.
Essayli said, “The President and the Attorney General have every right to select supervisors within the Justice Department,” and, “Ultimately, this question will be decided by the Supreme Court, and I look forward to serving in my current role until then.” Defense lawyer H. Dean Steward, who challenged Essayli's position, told the Los Angeles Times, as the Guardian reported, “Trump and his Department of Justice violated the law again and again in an effort to install minions as chief federal prosecutors.”
The Guardian noted that Alina Habba, Trump's former personal lawyer, was similarly disqualified as New Jersey's top prosecutor (see A Federal Judge Disqualifies NJ U.S. Attorney Leadership for the Second Time, Ruling Bondi's Workaround After Habba's Ouster Also Unlawful). Essayli's office is also pressing the department's effort to have California set aside ballots of alleged noncitizens (see Supreme Court Rejects Trump Bid to Set Aside California Ballots Tied to a Disputed Federal List of About 20,000 Names).