White House immediately fires U.S. attorney chosen by judges to replace Trump's pick

The White House fired the top federal prosecutor for upstate New York just hours after he was sworn into office Wednesday.

Donald Kinsella, who has worked for decades as a government attorney and in private practice, was appointed and sworn in as the U.S. attorney in the Northern District of New York in a private ceremony, the court said on its website. Later that day, he was fired in an email from the White House.

Kinsella told NBC News on Thursday that the email came from the deputy director of presidential personnel, Morgan DeWitt Snow, and that it said the “president directed that I be removed," without any explanation.

Reached for comment, the White House directed NBC News to a social media post by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

"Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does. See Article II of our Constitution. You are fired, Donald Kinsella," Blanche said Wednesday night on X.

Kinsella's hiring and firing were first reported by The Times Union of Albany.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York defended Kinsella's appointment in a statement Thursday, writing that it appointed him to the position of U.S. attorney, which was vacant, through its judicial authority to "appoint a United States Attorney to serve until the vacancy is filled."

The court cited Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution in justifying Kinsella's appointment, writing that the Constitution states in part that "Congress may by Law vest the Appointment" of officials such as United States Attorneys "in the Courts of Law."

Kinsella was appointed to succeed John Sarcone III, a Trump loyalist who left as acting U.S. attorney after a federal judge ruled last month that he was serving in the position unlawfully.

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U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield ruled in January that the Justice Department had taken improper steps to keep Sarcone in his post beyond the 120-day limit for U.S. attorneys who have not been confirmed by the Senate.

Sarcone demoted himself to first assistant attorney as he awaits an appeal of Schofield's ruling. He remains the highest-ranking prosecutor in the Northern District of New York.

Several judges have ruled that prosecutors were serving unlawfully after Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed them.

Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan, a former insurance attorney with no prosecutorial experience who led unsuccessful cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, stepped down as the top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia last month after a judge ruled that she was “masquerading” as U.S. attorney.

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She departed after an appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that disqualified President Donald Trump's former personal attorney Alina Habba from serving as acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey. In its ruling, the appeals court said Habba's appointment violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

In its statement Thursday, the district court for the Northern District of New York thanked Kinsella for "his willingness to return to public service so that this vacancy could be filled with a qualified, experienced former prosecutor, and for his years of distinguished work on behalf of the citizens of the Northern District of New York."

Kinsella was an assistant U.S. attorney from 1989 until 1998, when he was promoted to lead the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York. He left that position in 2002.