法律专家称，尽管联邦法律允许法官填补检察官空缺，但总统拥有宪法规定的罢免权
作者：阿什利·奥利弗
福克斯新闻
发布时间：2026年2月13日 美国东部时间下午6:08
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根据前司法部官员约翰·约（John Yoo）的说法，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普有权解雇法院任命的美国检察官，即使这些检察官是由法官依法任命的。约表示，宪法赋予总统对行政部门官员的广泛罢免权。
“否则，你可能会遇到美国检察官执行联邦法律的方式与总统意愿不同的情况，而总统是我们整个国家选出的，并且要对其负责，”约在接受福克斯新闻数字版采访时表示。
特朗普本周行使了这一权力，在联邦法官在纽约北区法院投票任命唐纳德·金斯勒（Donald Kinsella）填补因特朗普任命的约翰·萨科内（John Sarcone）临时任期到期而空出的职位后几小时，解雇了金斯勒。
司法部副部长托德·布兰奇（Todd Blanche）在一条激烈的社交媒体帖子中透露了这一举措，宣称法官”无权任命”美国检察官，这一争议使谁最终控制这些职位的宪法之争进一步激化。
联邦法官取消美国检察官资格，驳回针对纽约州总检察长莱蒂西亚·詹姆斯的传票
2025年6月27日，在华盛顿特区白宫简报室，司法部长帕姆·邦迪（Pam Bondi）与总统唐纳德·特朗普就最高法院最新裁决发表讲话。（乔·雷德尔/盖蒂图片社）
最近争议的核心是一项允许联邦法院在总统提名未获参议院确认且代理官员任期到期时任命临时美国检察官的法律。布兰奇认为法院任命美国检察官的行为违宪，这一评论正值司法部对上个月法官洛娜·斯科菲尔德（Lorna Schofield）的裁决提出上诉，该裁决因萨科内任期到期而取消其资格。
但加州大学伯克利分校法学教授约表示，法官的行为由于法律中的”特殊规定”是合法的，而特朗普仍然有权解雇金斯勒。
“无论行政官员是如何被任命的……根据宪法，这些职位中没有任何具体的罢免官员的方式，因此总统可以罢免所有行政部门官员，特别是司法部的所有官员，”约说。
约指出，宪法对美国检察官的任命程序有详细规定，但对如何罢免他们”保持沉默”。
“宪法有关于如何任命他们的详细程序，但实际上并没有讨论如何将他们罢免，”约在提及管理临时和代理美国检察官任命的复杂联邦空缺法律时表示。
他指出，现行法律和最高法院先例长期以来赋予总统解雇行政部门低级官员的最终权力，这意味着像司法部长这样的官员不能罢免法院选定的被任命者（如金斯勒），但特朗普可以。
金斯勒未回应其被解雇的置评请求。
根据法律，美国检察官由总统提名并经参议院确认。但如果参议院不采取行动，总统可以任命一名临时美国检察官，任期通常为120天。如果该任期在未确认提名的情况下到期，法律赋予地方法院法官任命替代者的权力，以避免职位空缺。
前特朗普律师哈利根在科米、詹姆斯被解职后为美国检察官地位辩护
就其本身而言，特朗普在蓝州的美国检察官提名中难以获得参议院确认，在这些州，上议院的蓝色提名条传统意味着家乡州参议员必须批准他的提名。
他在这些州（包括纽约州、加利福尼亚州、内华达州、新泽西州和弗吉尼亚州）的临时任命者面临法律挫折，因为联邦法官一致裁定特朗普不能多次重新任命同一个人担任连续的临时任期。
例如，参议院少数党领袖、纽约州民主党人查克·舒默（Chuck Schumer）已排除批准特朗普在纽约州的任何提名。在特朗普解雇资深联邦检察官金斯勒后，舒默在一份声明中表示，总统想要的是一个不合格的”政治忠诚者”。
“所有人都知道，特朗普只关心美国检察官的一个素质——完全的政治服从，”舒默说。
在新泽西州，在下级法院认定阿丽娜·哈巴（Alina Habba）的临时任期到期后，特朗普迅速解雇了法院任命的美国检察官。美国第三巡回上诉法院维持了下级法院关于哈巴任职不合法的裁定。
在弗吉尼亚州东区，最高检察官职位也处于悬而未决状态，因为司法部正在对法官取消林赛·哈利根（Lindsey Halligan）资格的裁决提出上诉，哈利根曾对纽约州总检察长莱蒂西亚·詹姆斯和前联邦调查局局长詹姆斯·科米提起高调诉讼。法官驳回了这些案件，认定哈利根的任命不当。
特朗普领导的司法部利用法律中的各种漏洞任命了萨科内、哈巴、哈利根等人，并在上诉中辩称，取消他们资格并由法院选择的美国检察官取而代之的法官是误读法律。
“重要的是，司法部的某个部门应由得到行政部门支持的人监督，并且即使没有参议院确认或临时美国检察官，美国检察官办公室也能继续运作，”司法部律师在哈巴案件的法庭文件中写道。
约暗示法院正确遵守了对代理和临时任期的法定时间限制，但他重申特朗普拥有唯一的罢免权。
他说，从建国之初，执行联邦法律的官员就根据宪法第二条和”执行法律”条款（确保法律被忠实执行的义务）由总统随意罢免。
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“任何执行联邦法律的下属都必须对他负责，”约说。
司法部目前尚未将任何美国检察官案件上诉至最高法院。哈巴案是进展最深入的，司法部发言人未回应是否会对该裁决提起上诉的置评请求。
阿什利·奥利弗是福克斯新闻数字版和福克斯商业频道的记者，负责报道司法部和法律事务。请将新闻线索发送至 ashley.oliver@fox.com。
Trump ousts judge-installed prosecutor; constitutional expert says Article II leaves no doubt
Legal expert says president has constitutional removal power despite federal law allowing judges to fill prosecutor vacancies
By Ashley Oliver
Fox News
Published February 13, 2026 6:08pm EST
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President Donald Trump has the constitutional authority to fire court-appointed U.S. attorneys, even if judges legally appointed them, according to former Justice Department official John Yoo, who said the Constitution gives the president broad removal power over executive branch officers.
“Otherwise, you could have U.S. attorneys who are enforcing federal law differently than the president would, and it’s the president who all of us in the country elect and to whom the president is accountable,” Yoo told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Trump exercised that power this week by terminating Donald Kinsella just hours after federal judges in the Northern District of New York voted to install him to fill the vacancy left by Trump appointee John Sarcone, whose temporary term had expired.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed the move in a fiery social media post, declaring that judges “don’t pick” U.S. attorneys and thrusting the fight deeper into a constitutional dispute over who ultimately controls them.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks alongside President Donald Trump on recent Supreme Court rulings in the briefing room at the White House June 27, 2025, in Washington, D.C.(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
At the center of the most recent dispute is a law that allows federal courts to appoint temporary U.S. attorneys when a presidential nominee has not been confirmed by the Senate and an acting official’s term has expired. Blanche suggested the court’s move to fill a U.S. attorney vacancy was unconstitutional, a comment that comes as the DOJ appeals Judge Lorna Schofield’s decision last month to disqualify Sarcone over his expired tenure.
But Yoo, a law professor at University of California, Berkeley, said both that the judges’ actions were legal due to a “quirk” in the law and that the president still has authority to fire Kinsella.
“No matter how an executive officer is appointed … none of these positions under the Constitution have any specific way to remove the officers, and so the president can remove all officers in the executive branch, particularly all officers in the Justice Department,” Yoo said.
Yoo said the Constitution lays out detailed processes for appointing U.S. attorneys but is “silent” on how they are removed.
“It has elaborate procedures … about how you appoint them to office. It doesn’t actually discuss at all how you remove them from office,” Yoo said, referencing the complex federal vacancy laws that govern how interim and acting U.S. attorneys are appointed.
John A. Sarcone III April 28, 2025, in the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the James T. Foley Federal Courthouse in Albany, N.Y.(Will Waldron/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)
He noted that existing law and Supreme Court precedent have long given the president the ultimate power to fire inferior officers in the executive branch, meaning an official like the attorney general cannot remove the appointees chosen by the courts, such as Kinsella, but Trump can.
Kinsella did not respond to a request for comment on his termination.
Under the law, U.S. attorneys are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. But if the Senate does not act, the president can install a temporary U.S. attorney for a limited period, typically 120 days. If that term expires without confirmation of a nominee, the law gives the district court’s judges the power to appoint a replacement to avoid a vacancy in the office.
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Trump, for his part, has struggled to secure Senate confirmations of his U.S. attorney nominees in blue states, where the upper chamber’s blue slip tradition has meant that home state senators must greenlight his nominees.
His interim appointees in these states, including New York, California, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia, have faced legal setbacks as federal judges have uniformly found that Trump cannot repeatedly reappoint the same person to consecutive temporary terms.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has ruled out approving any of Trump’s nominees in New York, for example. After Trump fired Kinsella, a veteran federal prosecutor, Schumer said in a statement the president wanted an unqualified “political loyalist” in office.
Alina Habba speaks to members of the media outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., March 24, 2025.(Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Everyone knows Trump only cares about one quality in a U.S. Attorney — complete political subservience,” Schumer said.
In New Jersey, Trump quickly fired a court-appointed U.S. attorney after a lower court found Alina Habba’s temporary term had expired. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit upheld the lower court’s finding that Habba was unlawfully serving.
In the Eastern District of Virginia, the top prosecutor’s role also remains in limbo as the DOJ appeals a judge’s decision to disqualify Lindsey Halligan, who brought high-profile indictments against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey. The judge tossed those cases, finding Halligan was improperly appointed.
The Trump DOJ used a variety of loopholes in the law to install Sarcone, Habba, Halligan and others, and has argued in appeals that the judges disqualifying them — and replacing them with U.S. attorneys of the court’s choosing — were misreading the law.
“It is important that a DOJ component is overseen by someone who has the support of the Executive Branch, and that a U.S. Attorney’s Office can continue to function even when there is no Senate-confirmed or interim U.S. Attorney,” DOJ attorneys wrote in court papers in Habba’s case.
Yoo signaled that the courts were right to honor the statutory time constraints on acting and interm tenures, but he reiterated that Trump had sole removal power.
From the founding, he said, officers who enforce federal law have been removable at will by the president under Article II of the Constitution and the take care clause, the duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
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“Any subordinates who are carrying out federal law have to be accountable to him,” Yoo said.
The DOJ has not at this stage elevated any of the U.S. attorney cases to the Supreme Court. Habba’s case is the furthest along, and a spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether the DOJ would appeal that decision.
Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business, covering the Justice Department and legal affairs. Email story tips to ashley.oliver@fox.com.