A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Trump administration’s pick to be the US Attorney for the Northern District of New York must stop his work on two ongoing criminal investigations into President Donald Trump’s political foe Letitia James, the New York state attorney general.
The ruling, which says prosecutor John Sarcone is not the valid acting US Attorney out of Albany, quashes grand jury subpoenas Sarcone signed in August that were sent to the New York state government and sought information on investigations James spearheaded and that Trump opposed.
It is the latest blowback from the courts to nullify prosecutors the president has wanted to empower but who haven’t been Senate confirmed.
“Mr. Sarcone is not lawfully serving as Acting U.S. Attorney.” Judge Lorna Schofield wrote on Thursday. “Any of his past or future acts taken in that capacity are void or voidable as they would rest on authority Mr. Sarcone does not lawfully have.”
Schofield added: “When the Executive branch of government skirts restraints put in place by Congress and then uses that power to subject political adversaries to criminal investigations, it acts without lawful authority.”
The judge’s opinion follows similar decisions from the courts against Trump’s unconfirmed US attorney choices in New Jersey, Nevada, California and Virginia.
Generally, the judges have decided the Trump administration is blowing past federal appointment laws that require eventual Senate confirmation of a US Attorney or, to put the appointment in the hands of the court. In each of the districts where courts have ruled against the maneuvers, the Trump administration had put in place top prosecutors, calling them acting US Attorneys, and insisted in some places they still have power even after the rulings.
“This decision is an important win for the rule of law and we will continue to defend our office’s successful litigation from this administration’s political attacks,” a spokesperson from James’ office said in a statement following the decision Thursday.
Schofield, a nominee of former President Barack Obama who sits in Manhattan in the District Court for the Southern District of New York, was brought in to handle the decision on the subpoenas and Sarcone as a way to avoid conflicts of interest from judges in the Northern District.
In December, James’ lawyers had gone to the court in Albany to try to disqualify Sarcone from criminally investigating James’ past civil case against Trump’s business practices. Sarcone, using a grand jury in the Northern District of New York, had sought records relating to the state’s civil investigations into the Trump Organization’s finances and the National Rifle Association.
In August, Sarcone signed two subpoenas sent to the New York attorney general’s office as part of a criminal investigation into whether anyone’s constitutional rights were violated during the state investigations into Trump and the NRA.
Schofield’s order specifies that those are the two investigations Sarcone can no longer work on in any capacity as a federal prosecutor.
Sarcone was appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi as an interim US attorney in March. When his 120-day term expired, the district court judges did not appoint anyone to the position. In July, Bondi named Sarcone special attorney and designated him as first assistant US attorney. He has assumed the position of acting US attorney.
James sued Donald Trump and the Trump Organization in 2022 alleging they inflated the value of properties to get better rates on loans and insurance. A judge found Trump and his adult sons liable for fraud and ordered him to pay more than $350 million plus interest. A state appeals court upheld the fraud finding but threw out the judgment as excessive. Both parties have appealed.
The state also sued the NRA and its leadership alleging it violated nonprofit laws. A jury found the NRA mismanaged charitable funds.
James has been in the crosshairs of the Trump Justice Department over the past year, which culminated in her indictment by a federal grand jury last fall in Virginia. Prosecutors alleged she made fraudulent statements in a mortgage application to obtain a slightly better loan interest rate on a house she bought in Norfolk years ago. James pleaded not guilty, and the case was dismissed because a judge found the Trump-picked interim US attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia who secured that indictment, Lindsey Halligan, also wasn’t validly appointed as a prosecutor.
The Virginia-based federal prosecutors then failed to re-indict James. That criminal probe is separate from the ones Schofield ruled on in New York on Thursday from Sarcone.
By CNN
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