By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) – The Justice Department moved to fire the new U.S. attorney for the northern district of New York on Wednesday, the same day that federal judges unveiled his appointment to replace a prosecutor allied with President Donald Trump’s administration.
Trump has drawn criticism from rights and political experts for what they call his administration’s targeting of political opponents in efforts that have faced legal challenges and protests.
In a ceremony on Wednesday, the Northern District of New York Board of Judges appointed Donald Kinsella to replace John Sarcone, who had been serving on an acting basis and was disqualified by a court.
“You are fired, Donald Kinsella,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X. “Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does.”
Kinsella, who could not immediately be reached for comment, has decades of experience in criminal and civil litigation and was previously an assistant U.S. attorney and the criminal chief of the Justice Department.
Last month a federal judge ruled that Sarcone was unlawfully serving as the top federal prosecutor in the state’s capital of Albany, and blocked his involvement in an investigation of state Attorney General Letitia James.
On Wednesday, the department’s website showed him listed as the “first assistant U.S. attorney”.
The DOJ used a series of procedural maneuvers to retain Sarcone as acting U.S. attorney for the northern district after a federal court declined to extend his 120-day interim appointment.
Those moves were found to be unlawful in court, similar to other court rulings that rejected appointments in California, Nevada and New Jersey.
The Trump administration has particularly targeted James, an elected Democrat and one of the Republican president’s top political antagonists, who has said investigations against her are payback for suing Trump’s family business.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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