At 7:40 a.m. Wednesday, federal judges in the Western District of Washington swore in former King County Superior Court judge and federal prosecutor Roger Rogoff as their pick for U.S. attorney.
Fifty-four minutes later, President Donald Trump fired him.
Rogoff, who recently resigned as director of the state office of independent investigations, formed to investigate police killings, is now the rope in a tug-of-war with the Trump administration. The district’s 17 sitting federal judges began looking for a replacement for Neil Floyd in January after the president failed to formally nominate him, instead appointing Floyd as interim and later as a “first assistant” U.S. attorney in order to sidestep the nomination process.
Rogoff said he was waiting in the lobby of the U.S. District Courthouse downtown to meet with Floyd, and presumably take Floyd’s office, when he got an email saying he’d been fired.
“We are working on legal action right now,” Rogoff said. “The rule of law requires that prosecutorial decisions remain free from political interference, and that lawful judicial appointments be respected. I remain grateful for the confidence placed in me and proud of the career professionals who continue to serve the people of Western Washington.”
Rogoff’s firing sets up a legal battle over a federal statute that gives a district’s federal judges authority to appoint a U.S. attorney if there is no formal nomination or Senate hearing.
Yep. 100%
Correct. I owed this country nothing so I left it when it started to turn into a putrid proto-fascist mess in 2002. My primary duty is to my family, not to a failed experiment in social exploitation and racism that pretends to be a democracy.
And we owe you nothing. Especially not our own deaths to appease your bloodlust.
The irony of proudly boasting that you only look out for yourself and your own, echoing the same mentality of the fascists in charge of this mess and thinking you are somehow different. Glad you're gone before you got turned into another MAGA voter reactionary.
Not so: in Europe where I live, I'm very active in my community. That's because the country I now live in and its people are worth it. America and Americans are not: they're a lost cause. I don't spend time beating dead horses.
Cool. Condemn me, my wife and my 2 year old daughter as being below the worth of concern. Go fuck yourself then, hypocrite. I hope for everyone else's sake that this right wing extremism spreading across the world doesn't hit Europe as bad, but I wouldn't hold my breath. AfD looking to repeat some history in Germany, as far as I can see. Don't expect my sympathy if it does.
Then what the fuck are you doing in here?
I want nothing to do with America. If it was up to me, I wouldn't even remember it exists. But it's a country that has enough clout to ruin everybody's life the world over, that has now turned into a fascist hellhole. So I have to care, the same way Americans who wanted nothing to do with Germany in the 30s eventually had to care.
That's what I'm doing here.
You really think yelling at people in Seattle is doing anything besides making you look like an asshole?
Do you realize what community you're in?
You fail to realize that nobody outside the US - particularly those whose peace is disturbed by America - is particularly interested in making distinctions between slightly groovier Americans in Cascadia and the average MAGA morons who elected the orange utan who's disturbing their peace.
I'm well aware that there are good people everywhere, and in America like everywhere else. But I'm sorry, last I checked, Seattle is part of that nation. If Seattleites are so much better than the rest, they should take steps to not be associated with it.
You speak with so much ignorance.