A judge ruled Essayli couldn’t serve as acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles but allowed him to keep supervising the federal prosecutor’s office.
Defense attorneys are taking another shot at ousting Trump administration appointee Bill Essayli as the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles.
In a motion filed late Monday night, attorneys from the federal defenders office asked U.S. District Judge Michael Seabright to reverse part of a ruling he issued last month that stripped Essayli of his title as acting U.S. attorney but allowed him to keep supervising that office in his capacity as first assistant U.S. attorney.
Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Essayli, a former rank-and-file federal prosecutor and Republican member of the California state assembly, in March to serve as interim U.S. attorney for the Central District of California. In July, she attempted to extend his tenure by naming him as the first assistant in the same office and then elevating him to acting U.S. attorney.
Seabright, a Hawaii-based George W. Bush appointee assigned due to conflict-of-interest issues raised by having judges in the same California district resolve the dispute, concluded that the reappointment maneuver was unlawful. However, he said Essayli could keep running the office without the “acting” title.
In the new filing, defense lawyers argue that Essayli’s current role is one of an “inferior officer” under the Constitution and requires Senate confirmation unless Congress has explicitly authorized another mechanism of appointment.
“Whatever title Mr. Essayli uses, if he is to wield inferior-officer powers, he must first either be confirmed or appointed to a statutorily authorized inferior office. Otherwise, he cannot exercise the significant governmental authority he claims, and the Court should bar him from doing so,” Federal Public Defender Cuauhtemoc Ortega wrote.
The defense attorneys highlighted a statement Essayli made on social media last month boasting that he was still wielding the same authority from his new perch.
“For those who didn’t read the entire order, nothing is changing. I continue serving as the top federal prosecutor in the Central District of California,” Essayli wrote on X shortly after Seabright’s order.
Spokespeople for Essayli and for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The fight over Essayli’s appointment is one of four disputes over U.S. attorneys President Donald Trump’s administration has attempted to install on an interim or acting basis since Trump returned to office in January.
Judges have also ruled against the appointments of Alina Habba in New Jersey and Sigal Chattah in Nevada. The Trump administration is appealing both decisions.
On Thursday, a judge is scheduled to hear arguments on attempts by former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James to disqualify Lindsey Halligan, a Trump-backed prosecutor in Virginia who recently secured indictments of the two Trump nemeses.