The underlying dispute stems from the fact that Trump’s preferred choice for the position, Neil Floyd, has not received a Senate confirmation hearing.
He was a US attorney for less than an hour. Now he's suing President Donald Trump to get the job back. Roger Rogoff, the federal judges' court-appointed choice to lead the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking reinstatement after the White House removed him from office less than an hour after he was sworn in, setting up a constitutional fight over who has the authority to lead the office until a Senate-confirmed nominee takes over.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, names President Donald Trump, the Executive Office of the President, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and the US Department of Justice as defendants. Rogoff is asking the court to declare his removal unlawful and issue a preliminary injunction restoring him as US attorney until the vacancy is filled through Senate confirmation.
The filing follows last week's showdown after judges in the Western District of Washington appointed Rogoff under 28 U.S.C. § 546(d), a federal law allowing district courts to appoint an interim US attorney after the Attorney General's temporary appointment authority expires. Rogoff reported to the Seattle office at approximately 8 am expecting to assume the role before receiving notice roughly 30 minutes later that the White House had removed him.
Despite Rogoff's appointment by the court, Charles Neil Floyd, President Trump's choice to lead the office, continues serving as First Assistant US Attorney and remains the chief federal law enforcement officer in Western Washington while awaiting Senate confirmation.
The underlying dispute stems from the fact that Trump's preferred choice for the position, Neil Floyd, has not received a Senate confirmation hearing.
Floyd brings nearly three decades of legal and public service experience to the role. He previously served as an Assistant US Attorney in Washington, DC, prosecuting violent crime, child exploitation, white-collar fraud, immigration offenses and identity theft. After relocating to Western Washington, he served as Assistant Chief Counsel for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, later becoming an immigration judge before joining the FBI's Office of General Counsel as Special Counsel for Immigration Enforcement. Floyd also served in the US Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, including a deployment to Iraq during Operation Inherent Resolve, and retired from the Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel.
Despite those qualifications, Floyd has not advanced through the Senate confirmation process.
Under the Senate Judiciary Committee's current blue-slip policy, Washington Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell must return favorable blue slips before the committee typically advances a US attorney nominee. The blue-slip process is a longstanding committee practice, not a constitutional or statutory requirement, and is administered by Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Because Floyd has not advanced to a confirmation hearing, the vacancy remained subject to 28 U.S.C. § 546(d), allowing the federal judges to appoint an interim US attorney. In his complaint, Rogoff argues that once the district court appointed him under Section 546(d), federal law required him to remain in office until the vacancy is filled by a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney.
"The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington validly appointed Plaintiff Roger Rogoff as U.S. Attorney for this district pursuant to express statutory authority that Congress provided," the complaint states, arguing Trump's attempt to remove him "cannot stand." The lawsuit contends that allowing the president to immediately remove a court-appointed US attorney would effectively eliminate Congress's role in creating a temporary appointment process when no Senate-confirmed nominee is available.
Rogoff is asking the court to prohibit the administration from treating anyone other than him as US attorney, restore his access to the office, personnel, and government systems, and prevent the Justice Department from recognizing another individual as the district's chief federal law enforcement officer while the case proceeds.
The lawsuit claims that the Justice Department is improperly allowing Floyd to continue functioning as the district's top federal prosecutor even though he has never been confirmed by the Senate.
According to the complaint, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Floyd as interim US attorney in October 2025 before redesignating him as First Assistant US Attorney when his 120-day appointment expired. Floyd publicly stated at the time, "While my title has changed, what has not changed is my leadership of the men and women of the U.S. Attorney's Office."
The complaint notes that the Justice Department's website continues listing Floyd as "the chief federal law enforcement officer in Western Washington," despite the office remaining vacant under the statute because no Senate-confirmed US attorney has been appointed. The lawsuit argues that arrangement violates both the federal vacancy statute and the Constitution's Appointments Clause.
The complaint also cites public statements by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defending the administration's position. According to the filing, Blanche previously warned that candidates selected by the court "do not have the support of POTUS" and "will suffer the same fate as others have when judges ignore Article II." After Rogoff's removal, Blanche posted that district court judges can appoint temporary US attorneys, "and POTUS can fire them," adding that Rogoff "has been fired by the President."
The Trump administration maintains that the president possesses constitutional authority to remove US attorneys.
Rogoff's lawsuit argues that similar disputes have unfolded in several other federal districts, including New Jersey, the Northern District of New York, and the Eastern District of Virginia, where court-appointed US attorneys were also removed by the Trump administration.
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