On the morning of July 15, 2026, the seventeen federal judges of the Western District of Washington swore in Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney. Fifty-four minutes later, while he waited in the courthouse lobby, he was fired by email.
The judges had not acted on a whim. Federal law provides that when the president fails to nominate a permanent U.S. attorney within 120 days, the district's judges may fill the seat. Trump had let the deadline lapse; the judges chose Rogoff, a former King County Superior Court judge originally appointed to the bench by Gov. Jay Inslee. The White House, which wanted its own interim pick, Neil Floyd, running the office, removed Rogoff before he could reach his desk. “We are working on legal action right now,” Rogoff said.
It is the second time Trump has fired a court-appointed U.S. attorney in the Western District of Washington, and similar removals have played out in New York. The pattern nullifies the statute: Congress built the judicial-appointment mechanism precisely as a check for when a president will not fill prosecutorial offices through confirmation, and firing each court-appointed officer within the hour converts that check into a dead letter, keeping every U.S. attorney's office in the hands of unconfirmed loyalists.
Update (October 2, 2026): A federal judge has put Rogoff back in office. Ruling from the bench on October 1, Judge Stanley Bastian, chief judge of the Eastern District of Washington, who took the case after Seattle's judges stepped aside, granted Rogoff a preliminary injunction. “The real issue to be decided in this case by this court appears to be one of first impression: can the president fire a U.S. attorney appointed by the district court?” Bastian said, and later, “The answer to the question the court is faced with is no. The president cannot unilaterally fire a United States attorney appointed by the district court.” The statute lets district judges appoint someone “until the vacancy is filled,” he noted: “It does not say 'until the president fires the person selected.'” He ruled that Rogoff has been the rightful U.S. attorney since he took the oath on July 15, that Neil Floyd's authority to run the office was “improperly granted,” and that Rogoff stays until the Senate confirms a replacement. Trump nominated Simon Peter Serrano for the post last month, CBS reported. The Justice Department: “We disagree with the decision and intend to seek an immediate stay and will appeal.” Headlines saying a judge ruled Trump cannot fire court-appointed prosecutors generalize a single preliminary ruling in one district.