By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. District Court Judge on Tuesday disqualified Nevada’s lead federal prosecutor Sigal Chattah from supervising four criminal cases, dealing another setback to President Donald Trump’s administration’s maneuvers to keep his picks in power.
U.S. District Judge David Campbell found that Chattah is not validly serving as acting U.S. Attorney and therefore “her involvement in these cases would be unlawful.”
The Justice Department declined to comment.
Chattah, who had most recently served as Nevada’s chairwoman for the Republican National Committee, was appointed in late March to serve a 120-day stint as interim U.S. attorney.
When her tenure was about to expire around July 26, the Trump administration extended her appointment under a different federal law, making her acting U.S. attorney, a move that effectively front-ran the U.S. District Court from being able to appoint someone to serve in the role.
Federal public defenders in Nevada brought the legal challenge to Chattah’s authority in four separate criminal cases, arguing she should be disqualified because her appointment was unlawful and asking for the cases to be dismissed.
Chattah is one of several U.S. attorneys who have been appointed through unusual methods throughout the country. Similar personnel moves were made by the Justice Department to keep other top prosecutors in place, including with Trump’s former personal lawyer Alina Habba in New Jersey, John Sarcone in the Northern District of New York, Bilal Essayli in the Central District of California and Ryan Ellison in New Mexico.
In August, a federal judge ruled that Habba’s appointment was unlawful and that she was ineligible to participate in any ongoing cases. The Justice Department is appealing that decision.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Chattah has asked the FBI to investigate debunked Republican claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, a probe she hopes will influence congressional races and ensnare Democrats.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone, Daniel Wallis and Lincoln Feast.)
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