The federal public defender\u2019s office in Los Angeles filed a motion Friday to disqualify acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, arguing that the Trump administration\u2019s pick to serve as the top federal prosecutor in Southern California is unlawfully occupying his post. <\/p>\n
Essayli, a former Riverside County assemblyman, was appointed by U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi in April, and his term was set to expire in late July unless he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate or a panel of federal judges. But the White House never moved to nominate him to a permanent role, instead opting to use an unprecedented legal maneuver<\/a> to shift his title to \u201cacting,\u201d extending his term another nine months without any confirmation process. <\/p>\n The federal public defender\u2019s office filed a motion seeking to dismiss an indictment against their client and to disqualify Essayli and attorneys working under him \u201cfrom participating in criminal prosecutions in this district.\u201d<\/p>\n The defendant, Jaime Ramirez, was indicted on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.<\/p>\n In a 63-page motion filed in Ramirez\u2019s case, James Anglin Flynn and Ayah A. Sarsour, deputy federal public defenders, argued that the Trump administration circumvented limitations that Congress has imposed on temporary service in key offices, including U.S. attorneys.<\/p>\n Essayli\u2019s term was supposed to expire on July 29. At that point the White House had not formally nominated him before the U.S. Senate, and local federal judges had taken no action to confirm Essayli, or anyone else, to the position. At the eleventh hour, the White House named Essayli as acting U.S. attorney, allowing him to hold the post for 210 more days without confirmation hearings. <\/p>\n Essayli \u201cwas not lawfully acting as the United States Attorney in any capacity\u201d on Aug. 13, when the government obtained the indictment against Ramirez, the deputy federal public defenders wrote in their motion. \u201cAnd he has no such lawful authority today.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. attorney\u2019s office in L.A. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Department of Justice declined to comment.<\/p>\n In their motion, Flynn and Sarsour pointed out that the Trump administration has used similar strategies to keep political allies in power in U.S. attorney\u2019s offices in New Jersey, Nevada, New Mexico and the Northern District of New York. But legal challenges are mounting. Last week, a federal judge ruled that Alina Habba<\/a> has been illegally occupying her seat in New Jersey since early July, although that order was put on hold pending appeal.<\/p>\n Habba was nominated for the post earlier this year but did not receive Senate or judicial confirmation. Instead, local federal judges chose Desiree Leigh Grace, a veteran Republican prosecutor within the office, to replace Habba. Bondi responded by firing Grace and naming Habba acting U.S. attorney, sparking confusion over who actually held the post and all but paralyzing the federal criminal court system in the Garden State.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the federal public defender\u2019s office in Nevada filed a motion to do one of two things: dismiss an indictment that acting U.S. Atty. Sigal Chattah brought against one of its clients, or disqualify the U.S. attorney\u2019s office entirely. The 59-page motion specifically challenged Chattah, stating that she is not lawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney. <\/p>\n Echoing Judge Matthew W. Brann\u2019s ruling on Habba, the Nevada public defenders argued that Chattah was not first an assistant U.S. attorney, as federal law required when the U.S. attorney seat became vacant.<\/p>\n The motion also argues that Chattah was illegally kept in office past the 120-day limit and can\u2019t exercise the powers of the office without Senate confirmation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Court should dismiss the indictment; at a minimum, it should disqualify Ms. Chattah from this prosecution, as well as attorneys operating under her direction; and the judges of this district should exercise their authority to appoint a proper interim U.S. Attorney,\u201d the Nevada motion read.<\/p>\n Last month, in the final days before Chattah\u2019s interim appointment ended, more than 100 retired state and federal judges wrote Nevada\u2019s chief federal district judge<\/a> to urge him not to appoint her once her term expired. The group said Chattah\u2019s history of \u201cracially charged, violence-tinged, and inflammatory public statements\u201d was disqualifying.<\/p>\n The letter called Chattah\u2019s interim appointment \u201ca troubling pattern by the Trump administration of bypassing the Senate\u2019s constitutional role in confirming U.S. Attorneys.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the letter, as of July, Trump had submitted formal nominations for only nine of his administration\u2019s 37 interim appointees. <\/p>\n \u201cIf this pattern persists, by late fall, more than one-third of the 93 U.S. Attorneys will have evaded Senate review this year alone,\u201d the letter read. \u201cYet, the constitutional role of the Senate is vital regarding the appointment of U.S. Attorneys.\u201d<\/p>\n Each of Trump\u2019s controversial picks has demonstrated fealty to the president. Chattah has long upheld Trump\u2019s lie that he actually won the 2020 election. Habba \u2014 who once served as Trump\u2019s personal attorney and has no prosecutorial experience \u2014 promised to turn New Jersey \u201cred,\u201d breaking with longstanding norms of federal prosecutors eschewing partisan politics. She has also filed criminal charges against two Democratic lawmakers in the state over scuffles with immigration officers at a Newark detention facility. <\/p>\n Since taking office, Essayli has doggedly pursued Trump\u2019s agenda, championing hard-line immigration enforcement in Southern California, often aping the president\u2019s language verbatim at news conferences. His tenure has sparked discord in the office,<\/a> with dozens of prosecutors quitting in the face of his belligerent, scream-first management style. <\/p>\n