White House fires court-appointed U.S. Attorney Donald Kinsella hours after judges seated him

On February 11, 2026, the judges of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York appointed Donald T. Kinsella, a 79-year-old former federal prosecutor with decades of service, as U.S. Attorney for the district. They acted under 28 U.S.C. § 546(d), which lets a district court name an interim U.S. Attorney once the Attorney General's 120-day appointment authority lapses. The court invoked that power only after U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield ruled in January that the administration's prior appointee, John A. Sarcone III, had been kept in the role unlawfully past the statutory limit. Kinsella was sworn in that day in a private ceremony.

Within roughly five hours of the swearing-in, the White House notified Kinsella by email — sent by the deputy director of presidential personnel — that the president had directed his removal, offering no explanation. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche then posted on X: "Judges don't pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does. See Article II of our Constitution. You are fired, Donald Kinsella." The district court defended its appointment in a statement, citing the Appointments Clause language allowing Congress to vest the appointment of such officers "in the Courts of Law," and thanked Kinsella for returning to public service to fill the vacancy. The episode followed a string of rulings that prosecutors installed by Attorney General Pam Bondi were serving unlawfully, including disqualifications in the Eastern District of Virginia and the District of New Jersey.

The Standing records this as an instance of executive overreach, an attack on judicial independence, and a disregard for statutory requirements. The firing asserted a removal power that nullifies a backstop Congress created precisely for vacancies the executive has failed to fill lawfully, and it publicly cast the judiciary's statutory role in the appointment as illegitimate. Recording the event preserves how the administration responded to a court-ordered correction not by complying, but by overriding it within hours.