Judge Rules Los Angeles' Top Federal Prosecutor Is Not Legally in His Post

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Bill Essayli, a Republican, is not legally serving as the top U.S. prosecutor in Los Angeles. The decision adds to the legal obstacles facing the Trump administration as it tries to keep handpicked acting U.S. attorneys in place beyond the 120-day limit set by federal law.

The approach was designed to get around Senate confirmation, which generally requires some bipartisan support. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright wrote that Essayli "is unlawfully serving as a 'de facto' United States Attorney."

The order will not take effect until the court decides on the government's motion for a stay pending appeal. Essayli said he disagrees with the ruling and argued that the president and the Attorney General "have every right to select supervisors within the Justice Department." He added that the Supreme Court will ultimately settle the question, and that he looks forward to staying in his current role until then.

Essayli, a former state lawmaker, was appointed last year by the administration as Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, which covers Los Angeles. Shortly before the 120-day mark, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi named him First Assistant U.S. Attorney. In October 2025, Seabright disqualified Essayli from overseeing several criminal cases, concluding that he had held the temporary job longer than the law allows. Essayli was permitted to continue as First Assistant.

The administration never named another acting U.S. attorney, which effectively left Essayli as the district's top prosecutor. He has become a public face of the administration's disputes with California, which range from alleged health care fraud to recent claims of widespread noncitizen voting. California has resisted federal efforts to stop election officials from counting the ballots of as many as 20,000 people the administration suspects are not U.S. citizens.

Seabright wrote that Essayli's standing faced fresh questions after an August ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a similar case. That court found that Sigal Chattah, the administration's initial choice for U.S. attorney in Nevada, was unlawfully appointed to lead federal prosecutions there. According to Seabright, Bondi's appointment of Essayli as a special attorney and her designation of him as First Assistant "is identical" to what she did with Chattah.

Attorney General Todd Blanche has since issued a new designation that trimmed some of Essayli's duties. The judge said, however, that "nothing in the revised designation order materially distinguishes it from the Chattah designation order deemed improper" by the appeals court.

Courts have found several other interim U.S. attorneys installed by the administration to be serving unlawfully. A New Jersey judge disqualified acting U.S. attorney Alina Habba last year, and in January a judge ruled that John Sarcone was not lawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York.

Essayli is a former federal prosecutor and Republican state legislator who took up conservative causes and criticized California's COVID-19 restrictions. He has been outspoken against state policies that protect immigrants living in the country illegally, and he has aggressively prosecuted people who protest the administration's expanded immigration enforcement across Southern California.