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Trump fires U.S. attorney in Washington on heels of court appointment

▶ Watch Video: Blanche faces sharp questioning over Epstein files, relationship with Trump at hearing

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. 

Trump will need China for his new economic war against Iran. Good luck getting Xi on side

By CNN
Beijing (CNN) — When US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled “Operation Economic Outcast,” threatening damaging new sanctions on countries that refuse to stop doing business with Iran, he didn’t name the one country that could decide its success or failure: China.The world’s second largest economy has long been a critical economic lifeline for Tehran, buying up the vast majority of its oil exports – worth an estimated tens of billions in US dollars last year – in addition to other trade.Bringing it on board with the White House’s latest effort to subdue an Iranian leadership stubbornly defiant after almost six months of war, however, is an extremely tall order.Beijing flatly rejects what it calls “unilateral” US sanctions and has long defended its right to regular trade with partners like Iran and Russia. It also surmises that Washington would be wary of triggering a broader economic confrontation that would hurt both countries, right ahead of the US midterms.On Tuesday, following Bessent’s presser, China’s Foreign Ministry vowed to “take all necessary measures” to safeguard its “own legitimate rights and interests” in the face of US sanctions threats.“Economic warfare and maximum pressure will not help resolve the issue; they will only further intensify tensions and conflicts, create spillover risks, disrupt the global economic and financial order,” ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.Bessent’s threat also comes ahead of a highly anticipated visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to the US next month, where the two sides could make progress on extending a critical trade truce set to expire later this fall.Trump earlier said that he did not ask Xi “for any favors” on Iran during a May meeting between the two – a statement, which, if correct, will likely smell to Beijing of American desperation to end the conflict.What’s left now is a careful calculus for both countries in how they navigate what Bessent has said will be a period of “quiet diplomacy” – or privately issuing ultimatums to Iran’s economic partners, which the Treasury chief did not specifically name during his press conference.Chinese analysts suggest limited space for Washington’s demands: “China is unlikely to accept a situation in which Washington determines what Chinese companies can legally trade with third countries,” said Zhao Long, director of the Institute for International Strategic and Security Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.“That would establish a precedent that US secondary sanctions can effectively determine China’s commercial relations with third countries,” he said.What Washington could doChina imports Iranian oil using a shadowy system that’s by design insulated from the US dollar system – and sanctions.Private, so-called teapot refineries, purchase and process US-sanctioned Iranian crude, relying on a network of ports, financial institutions and tankers that are often similarly firewalled from international exposure. China hasn’t recorded these purchases officially in years, since after the US re-imposed sanctions on Iran when the first Trump administration backed out of the Obama-era Iranian nuclear deal.But pressure points do exist, analysts say.“When you look at the upstream ownership of these entities, you’ll find many are directly or indirectly held by major Chinese state-owned entities that are heavily integrated into the US dollar system,” said Max Meizlish, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington.“By sanctioning their subsidiaries, the US can apply pressure on the parents to divest at risk of being deemed as providing direct or indirect support to sanctioned entities,” he said.Bessent earlier this year said Washington has sent warnings to two unnamed Chinese banks about their role in Iran-linked transactions. When asked on Monday during his press conference what measures the US would take against non-compliant Chinese banks and shipping firms, he said “no one is above” facing US sanctions.Despite the tough talk, Beijing has seen the US threaten – and then back off – sweeping sanctions before. And it also knows Washington is acutely aware of China’s significant economic leverage over the US, especially in the form of its grip on the global supply of strategically critical rare earths.“If Washington crossed that threshold (of sanctioning major Chinese banks), Beijing would almost certainly respond, and the political atmosphere for a summit (between Trump and Xi) would deteriorate sharply,” said Sun Chenghao, a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Center for International Security and Strategy in Beijing.Such a move might not automatically cancel their meeting, but it would “shift the summit from stabilization toward damage control,” he said.Summit considerationsBoth sides will be weighing up the impact of escalation to that summit, expected to be the first state visit by Xi to the US in 11 years.While Beijing will not want to be seen to be cooperating with a sanctions regime it opposes, there are careful maneuvers it could take – such as quietly reducing oil purchases or elevating its political messaging to Tehran and efforts to encourage restraint.Chinese purchases of Iranian oil have already declined sharply compared to last year as the US blockade has constrained Iranian crude exports.Chinese analysts have also in recent weeks suggested there are overlaps between the interests of Washington and Beijing, especially in terms of seeing trade flows restored in the Strait of Hormuz, which has been choked by the conflict, and restoring broader regional stability, also conductive to trade.And Beijing has in recent days re-upped its messaging urging restraint and normal operations around the Strait.In a joint statement following a meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Beijing on Monday, Xi called for the restoration of “normal passage” through the Strait and a “comprehensive solution” to the conflict.Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Miao Deyu said last week while hosting Iranian officials in Beijing that China was “actively committed to promoting peace talks.”Even still, Beijing has shown itself wary of playing a direct mediator role in the conflict, preferring a position where it protects its own economic interests – and plays up its image as a stable power that supports regional peace, in contrast to Washington’s vacillations.Any cooperation with the US in restoring regional peace “should not be reduced to ‘doing Trump a favor,’” said Zhao in Shanghai.“Beijing is willing to contribute to ending the crisis, but it is not willing to become an instrument of Washington’s maximum-pressure strategy.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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