By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -A federal prosecutor appointed by the Trump administration without Senate approval to serve as the “acting U.S. attorney” for California’s central district, which includes Los Angeles, was named to that role unlawfully, a U.S. district judge ruled on Tuesday.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright in Honolulu disqualifies Bilal Essayli from continuing to serve as acting U.S. attorney but leaves intact three criminal indictments brought during his tenure that were challenged by the defendants in those cases.
The decision came four weeks after another federal judge disqualified Nevada’s federal prosecutor, Sigal Chattah, from supervising four criminal cases, ruling that she was not validly serving as acting U.S. attorney.
The latest ruling, if upheld on appeal, creates a leadership vacuum for the most populous U.S. federal judicial district, serving some 19 million people in seven counties in Central and Southern California.
In Tuesday’s ruling, Seabright found that “Essayli unlawfully assumed the role of acting United States attorney for the Central District of California,” and the judge ruled him “disqualified from serving in that role.”
Essayli was initially appointed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi as interim U.S. attorney for the Central District in late March, with federal law allowing him to serve in that capacity for 120 days, the judge said.
By then, the White House should have formally nominated Essayli and won Senate confirmation, or the district court could have appointed a temporary U.S. attorney to serve until the vacancy was filled, Seabright said.
Under federal law, Essayli was not eligible to be appointed on an indefinite acting basis, as he was in July, according to the judge’s 64-page order.
However, Seabright declined to dismiss the three indictments – for alleged racketeering and firearms violations – finding that they were lawfully signed by other prosecutors and there was “no showing of due process violations.”
Essayli was not terminated from the U.S. attorney’s office. Rather, he remains in the position of first assistant U.S. attorney and “may perform the functions and duties of that office,” the judge ruled.
Essayli is one of several U.S. attorneys who have been appointed through unorthodox methods by the Trump administration throughout the country.
Similar personnel moves were made by the Justice Department to keep other top prosecutors in place, including U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, in New Jersey.
In August, a federal judge ruled that Habba’s appointment was unlawful, adding that she was ineligible to participate in any ongoing prosecutions. The Justice Department is appealing that decision.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles)
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