DOJ fired judge-appointed interim US Attorney James Hundley hours after his unanimous EDVA appointment

On February 20, 2026, hours after the judges appointed Hundley, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on social media that he had been fired: "Here we go again. EDVA judges do not pick our US Attorney. POTUS does. James Hundley, you're fired!" The federal judges of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia unanimously appointed James Hundley, a Virginia defense attorney with more than three decades of experience, as interim U.S. Attorney to lead the Eastern District's prosecutors' office. The appointment filled a vacancy left after Lindsey Halligan, President Trump's hand-picked choice for the post, was forced out the previous month once a federal judge ruled her appointment invalid; that judge, Cameron McGowan Currie, held that the power to fill the vacancy belonged to the district's own judges under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 546 until an executive-branch nominee wins Senate confirmation.

Dan Scavino, a White House deputy chief of staff, added a taunting reply telling Hundley to "check your email." Hundley did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and DOJ did not publicly identify a replacement or explain what statutory authority it was relying on to override the judges' appointment.

Virginia's Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, condemned the firing as "complete disrespect" for the process courts and past presidents of both parties have followed for filling U.S. Attorney vacancies in the state, and said the administration was "disregarding the law, which clearly gives district judges the power to select U.S. Attorneys when these positions are vacant." The firing repeats, within days of the prior removal, the same rejection of judicial appointment authority a court had already ruled unlawful once.

Updates

2026-07-15 — DOJ installed Theo Stamos as acting EDVA U.S. Attorney [3]

Nearly five months after firing Hundley, the Justice Department named longtime Virginia prosecutor Theo Stamos as first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia on July 15, 2026, making her acting U.S. attorney under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act without any role for the district's judges. In the interim, the office had been run since Hundley's firing by executive assistant Frank Bradsher, its senior-most official, with no one holding the U.S. Attorney title.