DOJ designated Sigal Chattah 'first assistant' to a vacant post to bypass Senate confirmation for Nevada's top prosecutor job

On July 28, 2025, two days before her 120-day interim term as Nevada's U.S. Attorney was set to expire, Sigal Chattah resigned as interim U.S. Attorney, and the Justice Department designated her "first assistant U.S. attorney" for the District of Nevada the same day -- a title that, under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act's default rule, let her keep running the office as "acting" U.S. Attorney without ever facing Senate confirmation. DOJ did not fill the U.S. Attorney post itself, leaving it vacant so the first-assistant designation could operate; Chattah had never actually served as the office's top deputy, the ordinary route to that title. Chattah confirmed the move on social media, writing that she was "now the Acting United States Attorney for the District of Nevada and Special Attorney to the Attorney General."

Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen condemned the maneuver as a way to keep an unconfirmable nominee in office without a floor vote; Cortez Masto said it showed "the Trump administration knows Ms. Chattah is unconfirmable." A hundred and sixteen former federal judges had separately urged Nevada's district court -- which under the same statute would otherwise have been empowered to appoint an interim successor once Chattah's term lapsed -- not to entrust her with the office, citing her "incendiary rhetoric" and a "record of urging weaponization of law enforcement for political ends."

Updates

2025-09-30 — District court disqualified Chattah from criminal cases, finding the designation unlawful [2, 3, 4]

U.S. District Judge David Campbell granted defense motions to disqualify Chattah and the attorneys she supervised from four felony prosecutions, ruling that the Vacancies Reform Act's "purpose would be defeated if the Executive Branch ... could choose whomever it wanted, whenever it wanted, and fill the vacancy simply by declaring that person to be first assistant." The judge, brought in from Arizona to hear the matter, stopped short of dismissing the underlying indictments but barred Chattah and anyone under her supervision from further participation in the challenged cases.

2026-02-11 — Trump nominated George Kelesis for Senate confirmation as Nevada's U.S. Attorney [9, 10]

On February 11, 2026, President Trump nominated Las Vegas attorney George Kelesis for Senate confirmation as U.S. Attorney for Nevada, but Chattah remained in office as first assistant U.S. attorney and continued serving as acting U.S. Attorney while the nomination awaited a Senate vote.

2026-08-17 — Ninth Circuit affirmed the designation unlawful, upholding Chattah's disqualification [5, 6, 7, 8]

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed that Bondi's designation of Chattah as first assistant violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, upholding the district court's disqualification order. The panel held that "the Attorney General cannot designate someone first assistant to an already-vacant office of U.S. Attorney" to bypass Senate confirmation for the acting role. The ruling leaves Chattah unable to continue overseeing federal prosecutions in Nevada; the administration may seek Supreme Court review, as it has not done in similar cases in other districts.