Washington — President Trump on Wednesday fired Roger Rogoff from his post as the top federal prosecutor in Seattle shortly after federal judges in the area installed him in the role.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Rogoff’s firing in a social media post and accused the judges serving on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, who had appointed Rogoff as U.S. attorney, of failing to consult with the administration before making their selection.
“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,” he wrote on X. “Roger Rogoff has been fired by the President.”
Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, criticized Mr. Trump for the firing.
“Roger Rogoff is eminently qualified — throughout his career, he has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to public service, and he was appointed legally by the federal judges in the Western District of Washington,” she said in a statement. “He should have never been fired, but the president wants to appoint an out-of-touch extremist who will put Trump over the rule of law.”
Murray accused the Trump administration of attempting to bypass the Senate’s advice-and-consent role to “install cronies to carry out a corrupt political agenda.”
“The people of Washington state deserve someone in this role who will enforce the law fairly and responsibly — not some Trump administration sock puppet,” she said.
Blanche’s announcement came soon after judges in the Western District of Washington issued an order appointing Rogoff as U.S. attorney. They highlighted Rogoff’s “deep ties” to the region and said he has “devoted his career to serving its citizens,” including as a local and federal prosecutor, judge on the King County Superior Court and as director of the Washington State Office of Independent Investigation.
The Western District of Washington has not had a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney since mid-2023, in the Biden administration. After Mr. Trump took office in January 2025, he fired Tessa Gorman as U.S. attorney, who had been serving temporarily before the district judges appointed her to the post in May 2024.
Mr. Trump has not yet announced a nominee to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle. The district court announced in January that it would exercise its authority under a federal law governing U.S. attorney vacancies to appoint one.
The office is currently led by Charles Neil Floyd, the first assistant U.S. attorney. Floyd had been tapped as interim U.S. attorney in October but a 120-day clock on his appointment ended in February.
Rogoff is the latest victim of the Trump administration’s ongoing standoff with federal district courts in several states who have exercised their authority to appoint a U.S. attorney until a vacancy is filled, only for their picks to be fired by the president soon after.
Federal law allows the attorney general to appoint an interim U.S. attorney, who is subject to a 120-day term. Once that appointment expires, though, the district court can either agree to extend that prosecutor’s tenure or appoint its own U.S. attorney until the Senate confirms a replacement.
Federal judges have exercised this power to install U.S. attorneys in several areas, including in Virginia, New Jersey, New York and Nevada.
In those cases, the Trump administration had tapped key allies as interim U.S. attorneys, including Alina Habba, who was Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, in New Jersey and John Sarcone in Albany, New York. But the judges in those districts declined to keep them in the roles and instead named their own U.S. attorneys to serve. In response, the president fired those replacements and, in some cases, maneuvered to keep his original picks — like Habba and Sarcone — in place under a different federal law.
But federal judges have said those acting U.S. attorneys put in place by the Trump administration in New York, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia were unlawfully appointed. At least one federal appeals court has ruled against Mr. Trump and agreed with a lower court that Habba was serving as acting U.S. attorney unlawfully. Several other appeals courts are considering the legality of the appointments of top federal prosecutors in their areas.
In a case involving Lindsey Halligan, who was appointed interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia and had also been a personal defense lawyer for Mr. Trump, a federal judge dismissed criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after concluding that Halligan’s appointment as U.S. attorney was invalid. The Justice Department has appealed that decision.