A freshly-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York was abruptly fired by the Trump administration on Wednesday evening, just hours after accepting the post from a panel of federal judges.
Donald Kinsella, a veteran prosecutor, had been sworn in by Chief Judge Brenda K Sannes in a private virtual ceremony earlier in the day, only to then receive an email from Morgan Dewitt, a special assistant in the White House personnel office, advising him he was being removed, according to The Albany Times Union.
“Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, POTUS does,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X. “See Article II of our Constitution. You are fired, Donald Kinsella.”
Kinsella, 79, subsequently told TheNew York Times that he was not certain whether his removal was legal and said he would consult with the Northern District judges on Thursday about next steps.
Kinsella had been chosen as the replacement for John A Sarcone III, who was appointed to the position on an interim basis last year by Attorney General Pam Bondi, rather than being formally nominated by President Donald Trump, which would have required a Senate confirmation hearing.
A judge found in January that Sarcone’s 210-day term, granted under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, had expired the previous July, meaning he was serving unlawfully, the same fate that also met Trump allies Alina Habba and Lindsey Halligan in New Jersey and Virginia, respectively.
Sarcone had no prior experience as a prosecutor before he took office and had clashed with judges since they decided against giving him the position permanently last summer, an embarrassment for the appointee, given that he had told a TV news station three days earlier that he had extended his tenure.
The judges instead announced they would not be appointing anyone to the position in a short statement in which they said they declined to “exercise the authority granted pursuant to (U.S. Code) to appoint a United States attorney for the Northern District of New York.”
Bondi hit back by naming Sarcone a “special attorney to the United States attorney general,” enabling him to return to the role.
Wednesday’s events came as Sarcone was awaiting a ruling on his office’s request for a stay in the January ruling against him. It is not currently clear what his next moves will be, according to The Times Union, although he is expected to remain with the Department of Justice.
Kinsella, for his part, is a graduate of Boston University School of Law who, early in his career, served as an assistant state attorney general and an assistant district attorney in Monroe County, New York.
He was an assistant U.S. attorney in Albany from 1989 to 2002 and, during that time, worked as chief of the office’s criminal division and as leader of its Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
He subsequently worked for several law firms, most recently as senior counsel at Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP.
Source: independent.co.uk