Acting U.S. attorney was serving illegally when he subpoenaed Letitia James, appeals court rules

A federal appeals court ruled that an acting U.S. attorney in New York was serving illegally when he issued subpoenas to New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The decision marks yet another blow to President Donald Trump’s revenge campaign against his political foes. James had led New York’s civil case against Trump and the Trump Organization for fraudulent business practices. John Sarcone III, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, was one of the loyalists Trump had embedded in the Justice Department to target his enemies.

In 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled the subpoenas were invalid because they were issued after the time Sarcone was eligible to serve as the acting U.S. attorney under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA), upholding a decision from a lower court judge.

Judge Michael Park, a Trump appointee, dissented.

Under FVRA, acting appointments cannot exceed 120 days. A district court judge had ruled earlier this year that Sarcone’s temporary appointment had exceeded that limit, making the subpoenas invalid.

“We hold that Sarcone was not lawfully serving as Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York under the FVRA, and that delegation to him of all the duties of that office as Special Attorney and [First Assistant U.S. Attorney] was an unlawful circumvention of the FVRA’s exclusivity provision,” Judge Guido Calabresi, a Clinton appointee, wrote for the majority opinion.

Friday’s ruling echoed the district court’s decision to quash Sarcone’s subpoenas. It noted that Sarcone’s interim term ended on July 14, 2025. This means Sarcone has held his post illegally for more than a year.

As a result, Sarcone’s 2025 investigations into one of Trump’s biggest foes, James, cannot move forward. The subpoenas had sought information about James’ case against Trump as well as a separate case against the National Rifle Association. 

The court called out the government for misreading the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

“The Government’s reading thus rewards evasion and penalizes compliance — a strange design for a statute Congress enacted to stop the Executive from skirting the Vacancies Act, and one that would undermine the statute’s purpose as a ‘reclamation of the Congress’s Appointments Clause power,’” Calabresi added.

A federal appeals court issued a similar opinion earlier this month when it ruled Nevada’s top federal prosecutor, Sigal Chattah, was serving illegally. Trump’s workaround appointments have also been challenged in California, New Jersey and Virginia.