ALBANY, NEW YORK – President Donald Trump’s efforts to place political allies as top federal prosecutors have faced repeated legal setbacks, with courts ruling that several of his handpicked U.S. attorneys in New Jersey, eastern Virginia, Nevada, and Los Angeles were serving unlawfully.
Now, New York Attorney General Letitia James is challenging the authority of John Sarcone, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, who is overseeing a Justice Department investigation into regulatory lawsuits James filed against Trump and the National Rifle Association. A court hearing is scheduled for Thursday, where James’ team will argue that Sarcone lacks legitimate authority, calling for the subpoenas he issued to be quashed and for him to be disqualified from the investigation. Justice Department lawyers maintain that Sarcone was properly appointed and that the subpoenas should stand.
The dispute centers on unconventional strategies the Trump administration has used to appoint prosecutors unlikely to receive Senate confirmation. Under federal law, U.S. attorneys must be confirmed by the Senate, though the attorney general can make temporary appointments, which expire after 120 days unless the district court intervenes. Sarcone’s appointment did not follow that procedure. After his initial 120-day term expired without court approval, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed him as a special attorney and designated him first assistant U.S. attorney, allowing him to serve as acting U.S. attorney—a move James’ lawyers describe as circumventing federal law.
The subpoenas seek documents related to James’ civil fraud case against Trump and a lawsuit involving the NRA and its senior executives. Justice Department attorneys argue that the attorney general has broad authority to delegate functions within the department, and even if Sarcone is not technically acting U.S. attorney, he can continue grand jury investigations as a special attorney.
Sarcone previously worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign legal team and served in the U.S. General Services Administration during Trump’s first term. Similar disputes have emerged elsewhere: judges in Virginia dismissed indictments brought by unlawfully appointed U.S. attorneys, an appeals court disqualified Trump’s former lawyer Alina Habba from serving as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, and federal judges in Nevada and Los Angeles disqualified other acting U.S. attorneys for exceeding their lawful tenure. These cases highlight ongoing questions about the legality of Trump-era appointments to key Justice Department positions.