Roger Rogoff walked into the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, asked to meet with the man he was replacing, and sat down in the lobby to wait. Before anyone came to get him, an email arrived on his phone. President Trump had fired him. He had held the job for less than an hour.
The 57-year-old former state judge and career prosecutor had been sworn in before 8 a.m. local time at the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle. All 17 active and senior federal judges in the Western District of Washington had appointed him unanimously. Breitbart reported the total elapsed time between the oath and the firing at 54 minutes.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the removal on X while he was simultaneously testifying before the Senate at his own confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C. The episode has now become the most vivid flashpoint in a months-long dispute between the Trump administration and federal judges over who controls U.S. attorney vacancies, and what happens when the White House declines to send nominees to the Senate.
Federal law gives the attorney general the power to name an interim U.S. attorney for 120 days. If that window closes without a Senate-confirmed replacement, the district's judges may appoint someone to serve until the vacancy is filled. Charles Neil Floyd, the Trump administration's preferred pick for the Western District of Washington, saw his 120-day interim term expire in February. The administration did not forward Floyd's nomination to the Senate.
Instead, Fox News reported, the Justice Department kept Floyd in place by shifting his title to "first assistant U.S. attorney" while leaving the top job officially vacant. Sen. Patty Murray, the Washington Democrat, had opposed Floyd for the position.
The judges eventually opened a formal application process. After reviewing candidates through what was described as a bipartisan review panel, all 17 judges, appointed by five different presidents, 10 by Democrats and seven by Republicans, chose Rogoff.
Rogoff had spent 20 years as a state prosecutor and six as a federal prosecutor before serving as a King County Superior Court judge. He knew, before taking the oath, that the administration might move against him.
He took the job anyway. Being U.S. attorney, he said, is "the best job there is."
Rogoff arrived at the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle before 8 a.m. and was sworn in. He then walked to the U.S. Attorney's Office and asked to meet with Floyd. While he waited in the lobby, the email landed: Trump had removed him from office.
Blanche's post on X laid out the administration's position in blunt terms. As the Associated Press reported, the acting attorney general wrote:
"District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them."
Blanche added that the Western District judges had "abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration so that the selected U.S. Attorney is qualified to serve in the administration." He closed with a flat declaration: "Roger Rogoff has been fired by the President."
The firing was not mentioned during Blanche's Wednesday Senate testimony. But with Blanche scheduled to appear before the Senate again Thursday, the Rogoff situation was expected to draw pointed questions.
Seattle is not the only district where the administration has clashed with federal judges over U.S. attorney appointments. The same dynamic has played out in New Jersey, Virginia, and northern New York.
In New Jersey, Alina Habba resigned as the top federal prosecutor after an appeals court ruled she had been serving unlawfully. In the Eastern District of Virginia, a judge found Lindsey Halligan's appointment as acting U.S. attorney unlawful and dismissed indictments she had brought against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey. Halligan left the post.
Newsmax noted that a federal appeals court had expressed skepticism in May about the administration's tactic of reclassifying interim appointees under new titles to keep them in place after the 120-day window expired. The administration has fired court-appointed U.S. attorneys in additional districts beyond the ones named in public reporting.
The common thread is straightforward. The White House has declined to send its preferred nominees to the Senate for confirmation in multiple jurisdictions. When the 120-day clock runs out and judges exercise their statutory authority to fill the gap, the administration fires whoever the judges pick, then continues operating with its own preferred officials under alternative titles.
Rogoff spoke to The New York Times after his removal. His assessment of the administration's personnel approach was direct:
"I don't think it's the way to run the Department of Justice. When you have this sort of made up way of putting people in these positions, the process breaks down."
He also reflected on the appointment itself, calling it a career honor:
"I'm really proud of my career. The fact that the judges of this district, most of whom I've spent my career appearing in front of, or trying cases against, or working with, believed that I was the right person to do this work is just really humbling and amazing."
Rogoff has retained an employment law firm and is considering a legal challenge to his firing. The name of the firm and the specific legal theory under consideration have not been disclosed.
Sen. Murray issued a written statement defending Rogoff's qualifications and attacking the administration's motives. She called Rogoff's appointment legal and praised his record, then added her own characterization of what the White House is doing:
"This administration doesn't want to deal with advice and consent, they just want to install cronies to carry out a corrupt political agenda."
That framing, "cronies" and "corrupt political agenda", is Murray's language, not a finding of any court or inspector general. But the senator's charge gains traction precisely because the administration has not submitted Floyd's nomination to the Senate. If the White House believes Floyd is the right person for the job, the normal constitutional path runs through the confirmation process. By declining to use it, the administration invites exactly the kind of criticism Murray is offering.
The broader legal question remains unresolved. Courts in multiple districts have weighed in on the boundaries of the president's removal power and the validity of the administration's workaround appointments, but no single ruling has settled the matter nationally. The New York Post reported that similar disputes have now surfaced in at least four federal districts.
Blanche is right about the law on its face: the president can fire a court-appointed U.S. attorney. No one seriously disputes that. The Constitution vests executive power in the president, and U.S. attorneys serve at his pleasure.
But the administration's broader strategy raises a different question, one that conservatives who value constitutional order should want answered. If the White House has a qualified nominee for a U.S. attorney post, why not send the name to the Senate? The confirmation process exists for a reason. It is the mechanism the Founders designed to balance executive appointment power with legislative accountability.
When the administration skips that step, leaves seats vacant, reclassifies officials under new titles to avoid statutory deadlines, and then fires anyone the judiciary appoints under the fallback provision Congress wrote into law, the result is a system running on workarounds instead of the process the Constitution prescribes.
Democrats have obstructed Trump nominees at historic rates. That is real, and it matters. Senate obstruction is not a hypothetical grievance, it is a documented pattern that has left agencies short-staffed and forced the administration into creative personnel moves across the executive branch.
But the answer to Senate obstruction is not to abandon the confirmation process entirely. It is to fight for confirmations, force votes, and make the opposition pay a political price for delay. The answer is certainly not to leave a U.S. attorney's chair empty for months, fire anyone a bipartisan panel of judges appoints to fill it, and then announce the whole thing on social media during your own confirmation hearing.
Roger Rogoff spent 26 years as a prosecutor before becoming a judge. Seventeen federal judges, including seven appointed by Republican presidents, reviewed applicants and chose him unanimously. He held the title of U.S. attorney for less time than it takes to drive across Seattle in rush-hour traffic.
The president has the power to fire him. That was never the question. The question is whether governing by workaround is a strategy that serves the rule of law, or one that slowly hollows it out.
