Politics

Trump Fired Seattle’s New Federal Prosecutor 54 Minutes After He Was Sworn In

By Mike Harper · July 16, 2026

Roger Rogoff walked into the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle on Wednesday morning, was sworn in as US attorney, and then waited to meet the man whose office he was supposed to take over. Before that meeting happened, his phone buzzed. He’d been fired.

The 54 minutes between Rogoff’s swearing-in and his termination notice compressed a months-long constitutional standoff into a single morning. Seventeen federal judges in the Western District of Washington had unanimously selected Rogoff — a former King County Superior Court judge, federal prosecutor, and director of Washington’s office that independently investigates police use of deadly force — to lead the region’s top federal law enforcement office. President Trump removed him before he could sit down.

“Greatest hour in my life,” Rogoff told KOMO News when asked about serving as US attorney for less than sixty minutes.

The conflict stems from a gap in the normal appointment process. Charles Neil Floyd, Trump’s preferred pick for the position, served a 120-day interim term that expired in February. The White House never formally nominated Floyd for Senate confirmation — a process Sen. Patty Murray had signaled she would block — so Floyd shifted to the title of “first assistant US attorney” and continued leading the office in a legal gray area. A federal statute allows district judges to appoint a US attorney when a vacancy exists and no Senate-confirmed nominee is in place. The Western District’s judges invoked that statute Wednesday morning.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was simultaneously testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee at his own confirmation hearing, posted on social media within minutes of the firing: “Judges don’t pick US Attorneys, @POTUS does.” He cited Article II of the Constitution.

Rogoff disagrees — and his legal team is already preparing to sue. “When the judges appoint somebody constitutionally and statutorily, and they’re summarily dismissed without a conversation, without an examination, without any understanding of what they intend to do when they get into office, then yes, I think that firing is not appropriate and is most likely unlawful.” Rogoff said.

This is not the first time the Trump administration has fired a court-appointed US attorney. Donald Kinsella was appointed by judges in the Northern District of New York in February 2026 and fired by the White House within hours. Tessa Gorman was removed in Western Washington earlier. Each time, the administration has cited Article II and declined to engage with the federal statute giving judges that appointment power.

What happens next is genuinely unresolved. Rogoff’s legal team is preparing to challenge the firing in court, which would force a judge — likely in the same district — to decide whether the president can remove someone a court has statutorily appointed before that person has done anything at all. Floyd continues to lead the office in the meantime, in the same first-assistant role that Murray has called “an end run around the Constitution.”

Rogoff, for his part, said the fight isn’t about him. “The rule of law requires that prosecutorial decisions remain free from political interference, and that lawful judicial appointments be respected.” Rogoff said in a statement from his firm.

The Western District of Washington has been without a Senate-confirmed US attorney for three years.