Judge rules LA’s top federal prosecutor was illegally appointed
Story by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein
• 56m
The Justice Department’s top prosecutor in Los Angeles has been illegally serving in the role since July, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Bill Essayli, Trump’s pick in April to temporarily lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, should have departed the post by July 31 under a 120-day limit imposed by federal law, U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright concluded.
An unusual maneuver by Attorney General Pam Bondi to extend Essayli’s tenure into 2026 violated federal appointment laws, the Hawaii-based George W. Bush appointee ruled.
“Simply stated: Essayli unlawfully assumed the role of Acting United States Attorney for the Central District of California,” Seabright concluded. “Essayli may not perform the functions and duties of the United States Attorney … He is disqualified from serving in that role.”
The Justice Department declined to comment on the ruling, citing ongoing litigation. However, Essayli emphasized in a post on X that the ruling permits him to continue serving as the highest-ranking official in the office he oversaw, even if he can’t hold the title of U.S. attorney.
“Nothing is changing,” he wrote.
Essayli did not address another possibility: Under federal law, the judges of the Central District of California could appoint some other attorney to fill the U.S. attorney post until Trump can get a nominee confirmed to the post. Federal law empowers judges to fill vacancies in the U.S. attorney’s post after the expiration of an interim U.S. attorney’s tenure.
Seabright is the third judge in recent weeks to disqualify top prosecutors appointed by Bondi to temporarily fill vacant positions in key federal offices, including those overseeing federal prosecutions in New Jersey, Nevada and now the Los Angeles area. And the rulings may inform a fourth effort — by former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James — to disqualify Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-backed prosecutor in Virginia who recently secured their indictments.
The challenge to Essayli’s continued tenure as acting U.S. attorney was brought by three defendants who were indicted by his office after his initial term as interim U.S. attorney was slated to expire. They asked Seabright to toss their cases altogether.
Seabright concluded that despite Essayli’s illegal tenure, indictments he brought should not be dismissed because they were also signed by other, legally appointed career prosecutors in his office.
That conclusion could bode poorly for Halligan, who was the only attorney to sign the Comey and James indictments, after career prosecutors in her office resisted bringing the cases. U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie, a South Carolina-based appointee of Bill Clinton, is weighing the effort to disqualify Halligan next month.
The challenge to Essayli was assigned to the Hawaii-based judge because ruling on the challenge to Essayli’s appointment was seen as a conflict for the judges based in the district in which Essayli oversaw prosecutions. The litigation against the chief prosecutors in New Jersey, Nevada and Eastern Virginia was also assigned to out-of-district judges for the same reason. |
