Had Sigal Chattah’s appointment expired, Nevada’s U.S. District judges would have been empowered to appoint her or a replacement. More than a hundred former judges from around the nation had signed a letter urging Nevada judges not to do so. (Screengrab from Chattah 2022 campaign video)
With one day remaining in her term as Nevada’s Interim U.S. Attorney, Republican firebrand Sigal Chattah caught a lifeline from President Donald Trump Tuesday that could keep her in office for another 210 days, albeit with another title.
Under a provision of the Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, Chattah, thanks to Trump, will swap the ‘interim’ designation, which entitled her to 120 days in office, for ‘acting,’ and another 210 days on the job, and potentially while a nomination is pending in Congress, should Trump nominate her.
“By bypassing the Senate and naming Sigal Chattah as an ‘acting’ U.S. attorney, it’s clear the Trump administration knows Ms. Chattah is unconfirmable,” Nevada’s senior U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said in a statement. “This unprecedented maneuver sets a dangerous standard and risks holding up critical criminal cases just so that President Trump can play political games. At the end of the day, my position remains the same: Sigal Chattah is unfit for this role.”
The default rule of the Vacancies Act, according to a congressional overview, is for the first assistant to take over as acting officer. “Alternatively, the President may direct either certain senior officials of the agency or any Senate-confirmed official to serve as the acting officer.”
“This is an outrageous attempt by the Trump Administration to try to install extremist Sigal Chattah as Acting U.S. Attorney for Nevada and keep her in that role indefinitely, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen said in a statement. “Trump knows Chattah would be soundly rejected by both sides of the aisle if she had to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, which is why he’s relying on an unconstitutional maneuver to illegally extend her temporary appointment that was set to expire today.”
“I will continue doing everything I can to block any permanent appointment of extremist Sigal Chattah as Nevada’s U.S. Attorney. She is deeply unfit for this role, and I call on the legal system to immediately remove her,” Rosen said.
Had Chattah’s appointment expired, Nevada’s U.S. District judges would have been empowered to appoint her or a replacement, as the Current reported last week.
When the term of New Jersey’s Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal attorney, expired this week, federal judges appointed another prosecutor to the office. However, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the employee, Desiree Leigh Grace, to prevent her ascension. Habba is the president’s former personal attorney.
In a letter Monday, 116 former jurists from around the U.S. urged the Nevada judges “not to entrust Chattah with authority we fear she will misuse.”
Appointing Chattah, who “is known for incendiary rhetoric and a record of urging weaponization of law enforcement for political ends,” according to the former judges, “would endanger Nevadans and the rule of law.”
During her unsuccessful run in 2022 for Nevada attorney general, Chattah declared her Democratic opponent, incumbent Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Black man, “should be hanging from a f–king crane”; longed for fewer “pronoun badges” and transgender individuals in America, while describing them with an offensive slur; and invited comparisons with Sen. Joe McCarthy and former Pres. Donald Trump by calling for the imprisonment of political foes.
Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Action, one of two organizations that spearheaded the letter, said the 116former jurists agree that “Chattah’s shocking racist and violence-tinged rhetoric should disqualify her from this office.”
“Our system of equal justice under law depends on prosecutors that put their duty to the law above all else,” said Greg Nunziatta, executive director of the Society for the Rule of Law. “This Administration has a disturbing pattern of entrusting Justice Department leadership positions to individuals ill-suited to such roles, often evading the Senate confirmation process to do so.”
“The role of a United States Attorney demands honesty, integrity, impartiality, judgment, and deep respect for the rule of law,” said Michael Luttig, a retired judge who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. “Based on Ms. Chattah’s public statements and conduct, we do not believe she even arguably meets this standard.”
Chattah did not respond to requests for comment.
In a social media post Tuesday, Chattah wrote: “Donald J. Trump is the 47th President.
Pam Bondi is the Attorney General. I am now the Acting United States Attorney for the District of Nevada and Special Attorney to the Attorney General. Rinse and repeat: The law is the ONLY thing that makes ALL people equal.”
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Author: Dana Gentry
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