Roger Rogoff had the job for less time than it takes to watch a sitcom rerun. The federal judges of the Western District of Washington unanimously appointed Rogoff — a former King County Superior Court judge and 26-year prosecutor — to the US attorney post Wednesday morning. Fifty-four minutes later, the Trump administration fired him by email, informing him he was out "pursuant to his authority" as President, NBC News reports.
Rogoff was reportedly waiting in the courthouse lobby to meet with his predecessor when the termination notice hit. When asked how it felt to hold the job for less than an hour, his response was perfect: "Greatest hour in my life."
"I’m really proud of my career,” Rogoff said. “The fact that the judges of this district — most of whom I’ve spent my career appearing in front of, or trying cases against, or working with — believed that I was the right person to do this work is just really humbling and amazing."
The administration's justification, courtesy of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, doubles as a tidy summary of how it views the separation of powers: "District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them." Blanche also complained that the judges "abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration" — which is one way of describing a court doing its job without first checking in with the White House.
The backstory explains the speed of the trigger finger. Trump named Charles Neil Floyd interim US attorney last October but never sent his nomination to the Senate — where Sen. Patty Murray had already signaled she'd block it. When Floyd's interim term expired, the administration simply relabeled him "first assistant," allowing him to continue running the office without ever facing confirmation. The judges, apparently unwilling to let that arrangement stand indefinitely, used their own statutory authority to appoint someone else. The White House's response time suggests they'd been expecting exactly this move.
Murray wasn't shy about who she thinks this benefits: Rogoff, she said, is "eminently qualified" and was "appointed legally," but the administration wants "an out-of-touch extremist who will put Trump over the rule of law."
“Throughout his career, he has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to public service, and he was appointed legally by the federal judges in the Western District of Washington,” the senator said. “This administration doesn’t want to deal with advice and consent—they just want to install cronies to carry out a corrupt political agenda.”
Rogoff's team says legal action is coming. Seattle now joins Virginia and northern New York on the growing list of districts where the administration has moved to oust judge-appointed prosecutors — a pattern that's less about any one office and more about who gets the final word on federal law enforcement nationwide.
No modern President had used this tactic before 2020, and doing it to nine attorneys across multiple districts in 2025-26 is a new scale of the practice, but it's the Trump era, so here we are.
