Remedy in Essayli’s US Attorney Status Challenge Baffles Judge

Dismissing hundreds of indictments filed since Bill Essayli was designated acting US Attorney in Los Angeles would be “draconian,” a federal judge said Tuesday as he weighed what to do if he finds Essayli wasn’t validly designated.

Judge J. Michael Seabright, a nominee of former President George W. Bush, said he was “struggling” to read federal statutes as giving the executive branch broad authority to install top federal prosecutors without local approval.

The Federal Vacancy Reform Act limits the president’s authority to empower temporary officials, Seabright said. Allowing the attorney general to backfill US Attorney vacancies by briefly making them first assistants—the maneuver that was used in Essayli’s case—appears inconsistent with the constraints on executive power in other areas of the statute, said Seabright, of the US District Court for the District of Hawaii, sitting by designation in the Central District of California.

However, Seabright puzzled extensively over what remedy would follow if he finds Essayli is invalidly holding his position.

Tossing cases could be on the table if they were filed against a “personal enemy” of the acting US attorney’s, such as “a neighbor they’ve been fighting with for years” who is indicted “under some weirdo mail fraud theory,” Seabright said. But the indictments at issue in the disqualification motion aren’t personal, he said.

The motions to disqualify Essayli are part of a trend of challenges to the Trump administration’s designation of top federal prosecutors without local approval.

Lawyers for former FBI director James Comey, who pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied to Congress, said in a Tuesday court filing that they also planned to argue that the Eastern District of Virginia’s top prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed.

Judges have ruled that similar appointments of Alina Habba in New Jersey and Sigal Chattah in Nevada are invalid. Another challenge to the acting US attorney in New Mexico is pending.

Few Duties Exclusive to US Attorney

Assistant US attorney Alexander P. Robbins said if Essayli is found to be invalidly serving as acting US attorney, he would still be a special attorney for the Justice Department working in the LA office, and would remain the office’s first assistant, which is the office’s next-most powerful official. There would be a vacancy at the top of the office, he said, but not much would change about Essayli’s role.

“If I understand the government’s proper remedy, it would be none at all, because he’d still be first assistant,” said deputy federal public defender James A. Flynn.

“There are very few functions and duties exclusive to the US Attorney,” Robbins said.

Seabright ordered legal briefing due Thursday from both sides on which “hats” Essayli would continue to wear if he were disqualified from his acting position.

The sides also argued over how long Essayli can hold his temporary role.

Robbins said that if Essayli is not disqualified, he would serve as assistant US attorney until Feb. 24, which is 210 days after he stepped down as interim July 29. The defense’s theory is that Essayli’s clock would expire Nov. 13, 300 days after the resignation of former US Attorney Martin Estrada.

Bloomberg Law previously reported that Essayli has ignored and overruled the recommendations of senior prosecutors, instructed staff to disregard Justice Department policies, and forced lawyers to redo indictment failures before new grand juries, according to multiple lawyers with knowledge of the matters. His office said the allegations were based on inaccurate and misleading information.

The cases are USA v. Garcia, C.D. Cal., No. 25-00655-MEMF, 10/14/25, USA v. Ramirez, C.D. Cal., No. 25-00264-SSS, 10/14/25, and USA v. Rojas, C.D. Cal., No. 22-00573-FWS-2, 10/14/25.