President Donald Trump fired Seattle U.S. Attorney Roger Rogoff less than an hour after federal judges appointed him on July 15, setting up a potential legal battle over the president’s power to remove court-appointed prosecutors.
Rogoff was sworn in at 7:40 a.m. by the chief judge in the Western District of Washington. Fifty-four minutes later, he received an email from the presidential personnel office notifying him he’d been terminated while he waited in a courthouse lobby to meet with his predecessor.
Rogoff, a former King County prosecutor and Superior Court judge, was appointed by the district’s 17 federal judges under a federal statute that allows them to fill U.S. Attorney vacancies when the president fails to nominate a candidate. The judges acted after Trump declined to formally nominate Neil Floyd, the interim attorney he had appointed in October.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed the firing on social media, stating that “District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them.” Blanche argued the judges “abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration.”
Rogoff said he is consulting with lawyers about legal action. “The rule of law requires that prosecutorial decisions remain free from political interference, and that lawful judicial appointments be respected,” he said in a statement.
The firing echoes similar confrontations in other districts. In February 2026, federal judges in New York appointed Donald Kinsella as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District, and Trump fired him the same day. The Trump administration has also fired other court-appointed prosecutors, including Tessa Gorman in Western Washington, who was replaced by Floyd.
Federal law under 28 U.S.C. § 546 allows the attorney general to appoint an interim U.S. Attorney for up to 120 days. When that term expires without a Senate-confirmed nominee, the statute permits district judges to appoint a temporary replacement. The Western District had been without a Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney for three years, according to the judges’ appointment order.
Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington criticized the firing. “He was appointed legally by the federal judges in the Western District of Washington,” she said, calling Rogoff “eminently qualified” and accusing the administration of wanting “someone in this role who will enforce the law fairly and responsibly — not some Trump administration sock puppet.”
Rogoff spent 20 years as a state prosecutor in King County, focusing on sexual assault and domestic violence cases before becoming a federal prosecutor. He was appointed as a King County Superior Court judge by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee in 2013 and later served as the first director of Washington’s Office of Independent Investigations, created to review police deadly force incidents.
Sources
- The Seattle Times — Rogoff’s appointment, firing timeline, background, and legal context
- Reuters — Rogoff’s statement, Blanche’s statement, and legal implications
- NBC News — Confirmation of firing details and timeline
- The Guardian — Firing announcement and judicial appointment
