MS NOW95%
U.S. attorney fired by Trump less than an hour after getting job files lawsuit 25%
By Fallon Gallagher28%
7/21/2026, 8:00:02 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, Representativeness Heuristic, and Recency Bias, with Availability Heuristic as the most egregious example at 17.6% saturation with 115 hits. Analysis detected 671 faulty-reasoning hits from 654 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 37.4% and a BS Rank of 25% (16,450 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 75.20% of the article peer group.
The U.S. attorney in Washington state who was fired just 54 minutes after assuming the office has filed a lawsuit challenging his removal, signaling the first legal challenge to the termination of this kind.
Roger Rogoff, who had been appointed to the role of U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington last week, was fired by President Donald Trump less than an hour after being sworn in.
Rogoff had been placed in the role after a panel of district court judges decided unanimously that he should take the helm of that office.
Rogoff received his termination notice via an email from a White House staffer informing him the president had directed his removal, he told MS NOW in an interview shortly after he was fired.
Rogoff said he believes he was fired because Trump and Blanche “don’t understand the Vacancies Act” that allows an appointment like his.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed the firing in a post on X, saying, “District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S.
Attorney, and POTUS can fire them.”.
In his lawsuit filed Tuesday , Rogoff argued that his termination was unlawful because the president lacks the authority to remove judicially appointed judges.
“By purporting to fire Mr.
Rogoff — and apparently committing to firing anyone else a district court appoints without ‘the support of POTUS’ — the President has attempted to negate Congress’s exercise of its constitutionally enumerated power,” the suit alleges.
Rogoff argued his firing was an unconstitutional separation of powers, noting Congress set up a mechanism to appoint U.S. attorneys until the president nominates — and the Senate confirms — a U.S. attorney.
He also alleged that he was denied due process.
He is asking a federal judge to declare his firing unlawful and reinstate him as the U.S. attorney until the role is filled by a presidential nomination and Senate confirmation.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told MS NOW, “The district court did not coordinate with DOJ on this selection.
Consistent with other firings of this type, this is wholly within the President’s authority.”
Federal law allows judges to appoint U.S. attorneys using the process in which Rogoff took the position.
The attorney general can appoint a U.S. attorney to serve on an interim basis for 120 days without Senate confirmation.
Once that term expires, federal law allows the district court’s judges to appoint a U.S. attorney until a vacancy is filled.
While these firings have become a pattern in Trump’s second term, Rogoff’s lawsuit is the first to challenge such a termination.
In July 2025, the former criminal division chief appointed to replace Alina Habba in New Jersey after she was declared unlawfully appointed was fired.
In February, an experienced litigator with more than 50 years of experience in upstate New York was fired less than four hours after he assumed the role.
A week later, a longtime defense attorney was fired in Virginia just two hours after he was appointed to replace Lindsey Halligan after her appointment was found to be unlawful.
Federal judges also appointed Jay Clayton, Trump’s current nominee for director of national intelligence, when he assumed the top prosecutor job in the influential Southern District of New York.
Trump did not challenge that appointment.
But Rogoff, a former federal prosecutor and Washington state judge, was prepared for it.
“I knew what was going to happen this morning.”
Rogoff told MS NOW in an interview shortly after he was fired.
“It was the greatest 54 minutes of my life,” he joked.
Now he’s worried about what the vacancy his firing created will mean for the office.
“Not having a confirmed U.S.
Attorney in a district is problematic for everyone,” he said.
The post U.S. attorney fired by Trump less than an hour after getting job files lawsuit appeared first on MS NOW .
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