Controversial acting US attorney ‘validly serving,’ federal prosecutors say

Federal prosecutors responded Wednesday to public defenders’ challenge of acting U.S. attorney Sigal Chattah’s appointment, asserting that Chattah “is validly serving.”

Even if Chattah was not legitimately serving as acting U.S. attorney, “she would be fully authorized, by delegation, to supervise criminal prosecutions in Nevada” because the attorney general gave her another title, “special attorney,” suggested the prosecutors’ filing, which bears Chattah’s name and that of Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Flake.

Chattah — who has a history of public controversy — has been in office since April but has not been nominated for the U.S. attorney role. She first served as interim U.S. attorney and then took on the acting title in July a day before her interim appointment would have expired.

Nevada Democratic Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto oppose Chattah, who has said she was made acting U.S. attorney because the senators would not approve her nomination.

Chattah declined to comment Thursday. Nevada federal public defenders involved in litigation over Chattah’s appointment did not respond to requests for comment.

Public defenders have argued Chattah’s term expired in July and she has since been doing her job without “force or effect.” They have said in court papers that they want federal judges to “exercise their authority to appoint a proper interim U.S. attorney.”

Prosecutors say the court “has no authority” to do that, as Chattah resigned as interim U.S. attorney before the end of her 120-day term.

The defense attorneys filed their challenges in multiple criminal cases, asking that the court dismiss indictments against their clients or disqualify Chattah.

The battle over Chattah’s role comes after a federal judge ruled Aug. 21 that Alina Habba, Chattah’s counterpart in New Jersey, was serving unlawfully and had not been properly appointed.

The week of that ruling, Chattah and Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson fought publicly over the handling of a child sex sting case involving an Israeli official, who posted bail and then returned home.

Wolfson said Tom Alexandrovich’s bail was pre-set by the court and did not require release conditions, but Chattah wrote on X: “A liberal district attorney and state court judge in Nevada FAILED TO REQUIRE AN ALLEGED CHILD MOLESTER TO SURRENDER HIS PASSPORT, which allowed him to flee our country.”

The district attorney responded, saying that Chattah had shown an “unfitness to serve” and was “often confused and often irresponsible in her assertions.”

Others have made similar comments about Chattah.

A group of retired state and federal judges wrote a letter to the federal court in Nevada in late July, urging members of the court not to appoint Chattah when her interim appointment expired.

They cited her comment in a 2021 text message that Aaron Ford, who is Black and serves as Nevada’s attorney general, “should be hanging from a (expletive) crane.”

Chattah has said the expression was “tongue in cheek” and did not have “a racial context.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow@BrighamNoble on X.