President Trump’s top California prosecutor is fighting to keep his position after a federal judge ruled he had been unlawfully serving as a de facto U.S. attorney. Bill Essayli, a former Republican state lawmaker, was disqualified from participating in or supervising two criminal prosecutions. The judge did not dismiss the indictments, however, and the order was delayed while the Justice Department seeks a stay.
In other words, Essayli took a serious courtroom hit, but he was not immediately escorted out of the office with a cardboard box and a farewell cake. The legal fight is still active, and the ruling has not yet produced an immediate transfer of power inside the Central District of California.
Senior federal judge J. Michael Seabright concluded that the Justice Department could not continue giving Essayli the authority of the vacant U.S. attorney position through his roles as first assistant and special attorney. The dispute began after the statutory period for Essayli to serve as an interim U.S. attorney expired. The administration then kept him in charge under a different formal arrangement.
That arrangement did not satisfy Seabright. The judge viewed it as materially identical to the setup that the Ninth Circuit rejected in a separate case involving Nevada federal prosecutor Sigal Chattah. The administration had narrowed some of Essayli’s duties in a revised designation, but the court concluded that he was still functioning as the de facto U.S. attorney.
The ruling applies to the prosecutions of Jaime Hector Ramirez and Tu Anh Tran. Seabright barred Essayli from participating in or supervising those cases, but he refused the defendants’ request to dismiss their indictments. That distinction matters. The cases remain alive, and the government has time to ask a higher court to preserve the existing arrangement.
The court gave the federal government five business days to seek a stay pending appeal before the disqualification could take effect. Essayli also said he remains First Assistant U.S. Attorney and continues running the district while the legal battle proceeds. The result is a legal warning shot, not a completed change in command.
Essayli has made clear that the administration intends to keep fighting. His argument is that President Trump and the attorney general have the authority to select the Justice Department supervisors who lead federal prosecutors. That position puts the case squarely in the larger dispute over executive authority and how federal prosecutorial offices are managed.
Essayli’s full response stated: “We respectfully disagree with the court’s order. The President and the Attorney General have every right to select supervisors within the Justice Department. Importantly, today’s order is automatically stayed so the federal government can seek a full stay and maintain the status quo pending our appeal. Ultimately, this question will be decided by the Supreme Court, and I look forward to serving in my current role until then.”
That reference to the Supreme Court describes where Essayli believes the fight is headed. It does not mean the justices have already agreed to hear this particular dispute. For now, the Justice Department is trying to keep Essayli in place while an appeals court considers whether the judge’s order should stand.
The case shows how a technical question about titles, appointments, and supervisory authority can quickly become a very practical fight over who runs a major federal prosecutor’s office. The paperwork may sound dry, but the consequences are anything but, especially for an administration determined to control its own Justice Department rather than let every personnel decision become a judicial tug of war.
Source: https://wltreport.com/2026/10/28/top-trump-prosecutor-bill-essayli-judge-sideline/
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