CBS News98%
U.S. attorney who served for less than an hour suing Trump administration over firing 46%
7/23/2026, 5:33:24 PM
BS Summary: This video contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Confirmation Bias, Appeal to Authority, and Begging the Question, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 27.9% saturation with 145 hits. Analysis detected 1,070 faulty-reasoning hits from 520 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 47.9% and a BS Rank of 46% (11,960 of 21,887 videos). This video is better (less manipulative) than 54.60% of the video peer group.
A US attorney who served, get this, for less than an hour is now suing the Trump administration over his firing.
Roger Rogoff is asking a federal court to reinstatement as US attorney for the Western District of Washington.
Last week, a US district court appointed him to the post after it sat vacant for months.
Then 54 minutes later, President Trump fired Rogoff and accused the judges of failing to consult the White House.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch defended the termination, saying, quote, "Dist court judges can appoint a temporary US attorney and the president can fire them."
CBS News legal contributor and Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levenson is here to answer the question of basically who decides this constitutional question.
So, uh, Jessica, how are US attorney positions filled?
So the typical way that they're filled is that the president nominates and then the Senate decides whether or not to confirm.
It's very similar to what happens with respect to federal judges.
But there is also of course this avenue where by congressional statute the attorney general has the power to appoint somebody as interm basically temporary US attorney but only for 120 days.
Then the federal statute says after that 120 days, a group of federal judges from that judicial district can appoint somebody.
And we've seen this frankly play out far more than was typical in other administrations.
Of course, what just happened as you said is that there was somebody who was appointed to one of the after, excuse me, the district court judges appointed a US attorney.
54 minutes later, the president says, "You're fired."
And as you said, this really does become a who decides question.
>> So, does the president then have the power to remove a US attorney?
>> Yes.
And so I think the legal tension here comes with the fact that when you're talking about an appointment, as we just discussed, that really is a process where the Constitution and federal law envisions that you're sharing power.
Either it's the president and the Senate for a permanent position or it's the attorney general for a temporary position and then federal judges.
But what we have right now is a president who is looking at people who are appointed by a group of federal judges and then saying you're fired.
The question is whether or not he can do that or if it undermines the appointment power sharing structure.
>> So what's at stake here in this lawsuit?
>> So I think what's really at stake is frankly what's at stake in so many other areas which is the power of this president.
And in this case, it's the power of the president to fire these heads of federal prosecutor's offices, these US attorneys.
And if he can do so in a way that essentially undermines in a way that essentially undermines again the Constitution and the federal law that says the president cannot do this by himself.
>> Okay, Jessica Levenson, thank you.
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