Another Trump-era acting U.S. Attorney is under fire—this time in Nevada—and the fallout could shake up multiple federal criminal cases.
Sigal Chattah, who was briefly out of office but reinstalled under a controversial legal workaround, now faces multiple challenges to her authority in federal court, according to Law&Crime.
The legal maneuver used to keep her in power? The same one that a federal judge just ruled unlawful in the case of Alina Habba, Trump’s acting U.S. Attorney pick in New Jersey.
Defense attorneys for three criminal defendants—Shamar Garcia, Devonte Jackson, and Giann Salazar Del Real—have filed motions to dismiss their indictments, remove Chattah and her team from their cases, and put an end to what they called a growing pattern of “purported” Trump DOJ-endorsed appointments that they say violate the U.S. Constitution.
Their core argument? That Chattah’s reinstatement sidesteps the Senate confirmation process “potentially in perpetuity,” a move they say tramples the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.
“U.S. Attorneys exercise sufficient power to be principal officers for constitutional purposes,” the filing in United States v. Garcia argued. “And despite Ms. Chattah’s acting label, the administration is attempting to capture essentially all that power by extending her term—potentially indefinitely.”
The defense is calling it a dangerous loophole: resign before your 120-day acting term ends, then get reinstalled under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act—all without Senate confirmation.
Federal Public Defender filings say this isn’t isolated. In fact, the same legal scheme was used in New Jersey, where a federal judge disqualified Alina Habba from prosecuting certain cases and declared she was not lawfully performing her duties.
Though one of those indictments wasn’t thrown out, the judge described the DOJ’s personnel strategy as “a novel series of legal and personnel moves” that had grave constitutional implications.
Chattah, however, isn’t backing down. She told CBS affiliate KLAS last month, “You know, a lot of these people, I know that they’re scared because I know where a lot of the bodies are buried because I come from the defense world… Sometimes we even choose the location to bury them.”
That remark turned heads—and now, those same defense attorneys are telling the court to take action. They’re demanding the appointment of a “proper interim U.S. Attorney” and asking the court to determine whether Chattah’s authority has been void since July 26—the day her original 120-day term expired.
Federal court records show that Senior U.S. District Judge David Campbell of Arizona has been assigned to preside over the three Nevada challenges, with a status conference scheduled for Thursday.
A footnote in one of the motions hints at more trouble on the horizon: “The Federal Public Defender may pursue this issue in other cases…”
For now, the legal bombshells keep falling—and if Chattah’s appointment is ruled unlawful, her critics may get exactly what they want: a reckoning over Trump-era DOJ tactics that are still sending aftershocks through America’s federal courts.
