President Trump's fraught relationship with activist, and to some degree, constitutionally illiterate federal judges, took a turn for the worse on Wednesday as the judge-appointed United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York was fired by Trump shortly after being sworn in.
This history of this goes back to the early days of Trump 2.0. In March, Trump appointed a loyalist to the critical post of U.S. Attorney in Albany, New York. With all the drama that was expected to unfold in New York, Trump needed a guy he could trust, and he settled on John A. Sarcone III.
Under the "blue slip" regime for appointments that Chuck Grassley bizarrely holds close to, for Sarcone's nomination to reach committee, it had to have the approval of Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. That, obviously, was not going to happen. Trump appointed Sarcone as acting U.S. Attorney. The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 limits an "acting" appointment to 120 days. When that term expired, Trump restyled Sarcone as a "special employee," which employed him for another 210 days.
In January, an Obama-appointed judge kowtowed to a complaint brought by the New York Attorney General Letitia James and declared Sarcone to have been "unlawfully" appointed. At issue were two subpoenas served on James and her claim that Sarcone wasn't properly appointed. I'm sure the decision had everything to do with the law and nothing to do with running cover for the ongoing criminal conspiracy that James leads.
This left a gaping hole in the judicial system covering New York's capital. Without a U.S. Attorney, grand jury appointments, indictments, plea agreements, and all manner of other things were uncertain. As no suitable replacement could be designated by Trump, a panel of federal judges used their authority under 28 U.S.C. § 546(d) to appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney.
The judges turned to retired attorney Donald Kinsella.
Kinsella, 79, a Republican, has decades of experience as a lawyer and prosecutor.
He retired from the federal government in 2002 as the chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He is now a senior counsel at the Albany law firm of Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna.
Kinsella, who grew up in Oneida, graduated from Syracuse University and the Boston University School of Law.
Kinsella was sworn in at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. At 8:40, he received an email from the White House informing him that he had been fired. About the time Kinsella was reading his dismissal notice, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche made the announcement public.
Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does. See Article II of our Constitution. You are fired, Donald Kinsella. https://t.co/XUYRgaqG2T
— Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) February 12, 2026
This now makes two U.S. Attorney offices: the other is the District of New Jersey, where the "blue slip" tradition left Trump with the choice of appointing interim U.S. Attorneys or people beholden to the state's Democratic oligarchy.
The choice of Kinsella seems like an attempt by the panel of judges to be conciliatory, but selecting a superannuated Bush Republican to represent President Trump was never going to work, especially with the ongoing investigation of Letitia James.
Beyond the practicalities of getting the job done, there is a matter of principle. The Trump administration is fighting a handful of cases over the president's legal authority to hire and fire Executive Branch employees. Going along with Article III judges appointing a U.S. Attorney, who works for the Attorney General, would've made it much more difficult to attack these laws as meddling in the Executive Branch. It is absurd that a panel of judges can not only remove a president's nominee under some pretext but also force him to hire someone he doesn't want.
The easy way out of this dilemma would be for Grassley to pretend he still generates testosterone and obliterate the "blue slip" rule. But he doesn't, and so he won't. I think the Supreme Court will ultimately rule that the law, as written, is a violation of and an affront to the separation of powers. If that is the decision, then how it is put into practice will be interesting.
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