So much winning! We already discussed the Trump administration's illegal firing of the unanimously appointed US Attorney Roger Rogoff for the Western District of Washington here, whom Trump axed in less than an hour after he was appointed.
It appears their efforts to have the judge overseeing the case recused have now failed:
President Donald Trump was slapped down by a federal judge Thursday who said the government had “no binding authority” to demand his recusal from a lawsuit brought by Roger Rogoff, who was appointed as the top U.S. prosecutor in Seattle on July 15 and then axed by Trump in less than an hour.
[...]
Rogoff’s July 21 lawsuit revived the question of whether a president can fire a prosecutor appointed by federal judges. Ricardo Martinez, who was appointed by ex-President George W. Bush, was the first judge assigned to the case — but reportedly recused himself.
The case then passed to US District Court Judge Stanley Bastian in Washington, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama and stated ahead of the 2020 election that Trump was using the U.S. Postal Service “as a tool in partisan politics.”
Trump’s DOJ was none too pleased by his assignment in the Rogoff case, and filed a motion demanding it be reassigned or that Bastian recuse himself. Bastian did no such thing — and published a three-page order Thursday denying the motion.
Bastian argued that while Trump and the Justice Department “take issue with the reassignment, asserting that allowing Judge Martinez to recuse himself and reassign the case was somehow improper,” there is “no binding precedent or rule that states reassignment must follow a certain procedure.”
The motion also stated that Trump and the DOJ “provide no binding authority that would require recusal.”
