Nevada acting US attorney Sigal Chattah disqualified from multiple cases, judge rules

Arizona-based Senior U.S. District Judge David Campbell said in his order that Chattah was disqualified from supervising the criminal prosecutions of four defendants who filed challenges through their public defenders.

“Given the Court’s conclusion that Ms. Chattah is not validly serving as Acting U.S. Attorney, her involvement in these cases would be unlawful,” said the judge in his order.

Campbell also ruled that federal judges in Nevada could decide whether to select their own interim U.S. attorney.

The federal public defender’s office has argued that Chattah’s term expired in July and that she has been doing her job since then without “force or effect.” They had also asked judges to “exercise their authority to appoint a proper interim U.S. attorney.”

Federal prosecutors have said Chattah, who has been in office since April, “is validly serving.”

The U.S. attorney’s office and public defender’s office declined to comment.

Greg Brower, a former Nevada U.S. attorney, said that the government will likely appeal.

But absent a pause on the ruling, the decision will stand and “in effect, she will be disqualified from being the acting U.S. attorney, until and unless the Ninth Circuit (Court of Appeals) reverses this decision,” said Brower.

He added: “That obviously poses certain practical problems and a certain degree of chaos within the office as this is all being sorted out.”

‘The most accessible United States attorney that I’ve seen’

David Chesnoff, a prominent Las Vegas defense attorney, said, “The order appears not to have any positive impact for the defendants who filed the motion and instead, potentially disqualifies the most accessible United States attorney that I’ve seen in this district in my 40-plus years of practice.”

Chesnoff was appointed by President Donald Trump to the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Public defenders had argued that the cases at issue should be dismissed, but the judge rejected that request.

“It is not enough merely to assert the U.S. Attorney is not validly appointed; Defendants must show that this fact somehow affects the fairness of the proceedings against them,” wrote Campbell. “They have not done so.”

The debate over Chattah comes after a ruling that Alina Habba, her counterpart in New Jersey, was serving unlawfully and had not been properly appointed.

Chattah previously said she was in a different position than Habba because New Jersey judges had replaced Habba and Habba was nominated by Trump after being named U.S. attorney.

President hasn’t nominated anybody for Nevada’s U.S. attorney

Campbell noted in his ruling that the president has not nominated anyone to serve as Nevada’s permanent U.S. attorney.

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.

“Everyone agrees the Attorney General had authority to appoint Ms. Chattah to her temporary position for 120 days,” the judge wrote.

But he seemed to take issue with the process that followed to keep her in office.

Chattah started as interim U.S. attorney, then took on the acting U.S. attorney title in July a day before the expiration of her interim appointment.

She has said she resigned as interim, was appointed first assistant and then became acting U.S. attorney.

“(T)he Attorney General cannot designate Ms. Chattah as first assistant and thereby make her Acting U.S. Attorney,” wrote Campbell.

The judge said he’d “remain available to handle similar motions filed in other Nevada cases, if warranted.”

He said Nevada federal judges had recused themselves from hearing the motions at issue, “presumably because the motions implicate their own power to appoint an Acting U.S. Attorney.”

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