America’s
official
Spirit
Halloween
pop-up
has
taken
over
the
Department
of
Justice,
and
the
most
popular
costume
is
“fake
U.S.
Attorney.”
It’s
another
day,
so
we
have
another
Trump
DOJ
appointee
found
illegally
cosplaying
as
a
U.S.
Attorney.
This
time
it’s
Sigal
Chattah,
the
District
of
Nevada’s
interim
top
federal
prosecutor,
who
follows
in
Alina
Habba’s
ignominious
footsteps
by
overstaying
the
120-day
limit
on
her
interim
appointment
and
forcing
a
federal
judge
to
explain
“that’s
not
how
any
of
this
works.”
Just
like
Habba’s
debacle
in
New
Jersey,
the
administration
tried
to
get
around
the
expiration
of
Chattah’s
appointment
by
naming
her
simultaneously
as
her
own
first
assistant
and
claiming
the
Federal
Vacancies
Reform
Act
then
allowed
her
to
automatically
ascend
to
the
acting
U.S.
Attorney
role
when
her
own
job
ended
by
force
of
law.
Make
sense?
Yeah,
a
federal
judge
didn’t
think
so
either.
“The
Court
cannot
accept
the
government’s
assertion
that
the
Attorney
General
has
power
to
designate
anyone
she
chooses
as
first
assistant
and
have
that
person
become
the
acting
U.S.
Attorney,”
the
judge
wrote
in
a
32-page
ruling.
“The
[Federal
Vacancies
Reform
Act]
was
enacted
to
put
an
end
to
precisely
such
Executive
actions.”
Chattah
earned
her
temporary
position
as
the
top
prosecutor
in
Nevada
the
same
way
most
Trump
appointees
did:
by
being
a
shameless
loyalist
with
few
qualifications.
Before
her
appointment,
Chattah
made
a
name
for
herself
in
MAGAhead
circles
for
challenging
public
health
mandates
during
COVID
and
flirting
with
election
denialism.
With
support
from
such
unimpeachable
supporters
as
Matt
Gaetz,
Chattah
got
herself
on
the
Republican
National
Committee
and
then
appointed
to
the
interim
U.S.
Attorney
job
despite
a
lack
of
prosecutorial
experience.
Alas,
these
jobs
still
require
Senate
approval
to
become
permanent
and
the
Senate
still,
for
now,
respects
the
blue
slip
process
for
these
jobs.
Neither
Nevada
senator
had
any
interest
in
supporting
Chattah’s
confirmation.
In
part
because
of
Chattah’s
past
text
messages
saying
Nevada
Attorney
General,
Aaron
Ford,
“should
be
hanging
from
a
fucking
crane.”
Which
is
weird
because
we’ve
spent
the
last
few
weeks
hearing
all
about
how
political
violence
is
exclusively
a
Democrat
problem,
so
it’s
just
crazy
to
think
a
Trump
appointee
would
casually
joke
about
lynching
a
Black
man.
Could
that
have
just
been
a
disingenuous
lie
spread
by
an
administration
attempting
to
stir
up
its
own
personal
Reichstag
fire?
Next
thing
you’re
going
to
tell
me
Portland
isn’t
really
a
war-torn
hellhole!
Those
texts
about
Ford
became
public
in
2022,
by
the
way.
So
she
got
this
job
after
everyone
knew
about
that.
Judge
David
Campbell,
a
fellow
Republican
appointee,
but
one
who
was
actually
capable
of
being
confirmed
by
the
Senate
because
the
W.
Bush
administration
is
somehow
a
halcyon
era
of
lawfulness,
put
a
stop
to
Chattah’s
attempt
to
seize
the
job
through
adverse
possession.
In
a
challenge
brought
by
criminal
defendants
challenging
their
indictments
on
the
grounds
that
Chattah,
you
know,
isn’t
really
the
U.S.
Attorney,
Judge
Campbell
ruled
that
Chattah
cannot
legally
oversee
their
cases.
More
or
less
exactly
how
the
Habba
case
went
down.
Judge
Campbell
did
keep
the
indictments
intact,
which
speaks
to
the
judiciary’s
unwillingness
to
let
go
anyone
that
a
grand
jury
has
already
decided
very
well
could
be
criminals.
Unfortunately,
that
just
emboldens
the
administration
to
keep
their
fake
U.S.
Attorneys
on
the
job
and
just
let
Todd
Blanche
or
someone
else
in
D.C.
absent-mindedly
co-sign
their
decisions.
But
if
the
calls
are
coming
from
people
without
the
legal
authority
to
pursue
those
cases,
they
are
tainted
—
full
stop.
This
nonsense
is
going
to
continue
until
a
judge
is
willing
to
let
a
drug
kingpin
loose
over
this.
Not
that
the
federal
government
is
even
trying
to
stop
drug
kingpins
at
this
point.
(Check
out
the
opinion
on
the
next
page…)
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
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of
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Like
A
Lawyer.
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