White House fired court-appointed Seattle U.S. Attorney Roger Rogoff within an hour of his swearing-in

On Wednesday, July 15, 2026, the judges of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington unanimously appointed Roger Rogoff — a veteran state and federal prosecutor, former King County Superior Court judge, and former director of Washington's Office of Independent Investigations — as U.S. Attorney for the district. They acted under 28 U.S.C. § 546, which lets a district court name an interim U.S. Attorney once the Attorney General's 120-day appointment authority lapses. Rogoff was sworn in before 8 a.m. at the U.S. courthouse in downtown Seattle.

Less than an hour later, while Rogoff waited in a lobby at the U.S. Attorney's Office, a termination notice arrived from the presidential personnel office. Rogoff said the email, titled "A Message From the President," stated that the president was "hereby removing you from the office of the United States attorney." Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X: "District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them. WDWA judges abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration so that the selected U.S. Attorney is qualified to serve in the administration. Roger Rogoff has been fired by the President." Blanche did not dispute the judges' statutory power to appoint but asserted that the president's removal power overrides it.

The seat had been vacant because the administration left its earlier interim pick, Charles Neil Floyd, in place through a series of personnel maneuvers after his 120-day term expired in February 2026 — never forwarding a nomination to the Senate, then reassigning him as first assistant U.S. attorney while leaving the top post empty. A federal appeals panel had in May 2026 expressed skepticism that the maneuver was lawful, after which the district's judges took applications and selected Rogoff. Rogoff called his summary dismissal, made without any consultation, "most likely unlawful." This is recorded 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 the backstop Congress created for vacancies the executive failed to fill lawfully, and cast the judiciary's statutory role as illegitimate. It mirrors the administration's February 11, 2026 firing of court-appointed U.S. Attorney Donald Kinsella in the Northern District of New York — a distinct event involving a different appointee, date, and district, but the same pattern.

Updates

2026-07-16 — Rogoff weighed a legal challenge to the firing [3, 5]

Rogoff said he was consulting with other lawyers about suing over his removal, telling reporters that a constitutionally and statutorily appointed U.S. Attorney summarily dismissed without examination "is most likely unlawful." Bloomberg Law reported the dismissal could set up the first legal battle over the executive branch's authority to terminate such judicially appointed prosecutors. No suit had been filed as of this recording.

2026-07-21 — Rogoff filed federal lawsuit challenging his firing [6, 7, 8]

Roger Rogoff filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on July 21, 2026, seeking reinstatement as U.S. Attorney and arguing that his removal was unlawful. The complaint contended that the president lacked authority to terminate a U.S. Attorney appointed by the district court under 28 U.S.C. § 546, and that the White House's email dismissal — delivered within an hour of his swearing-in — had no legal effect. The suit set up the first direct judicial test of whether the executive branch can remove a court-appointed interim U.S. Attorney.