Trump Fires Seattle US Attorney Minutes After Appointment
Was this a lawful executive act or an unconstitutional purge of an independent prosecutor?
Above: President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. on July 14. Image credit: Graeme Sloan/EPA/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The Spin
Republican narrative
The administration is rightly playing hardball in order to get its preferred nominees into key positions. It's settled law that the president has every right to fire a judicially appointed U.S. attorney, so Trump has done nothing wrong. The Western Washington judges skipped the time-honored consultation process, so Rogoff's firing was the only appropriate response.
Democratic narrative
Rogoff was legally appointed under constitutional law and then fired for refusing to be a regime loyalist. The Trump administration never even submitted confirmation paperwork for its own pick, leaving the office in legal limbo. The judiciary stepped in precisely because the executive branch abandoned the advice-and-consent process entirely.
