Ninth Circuit Nixes Sigal Chattah’s Appointment as Top Federal Prosecutor in Nevada

The ruling upheld a judge’s decision last year that declared her appointment invalid.

Nevada Republican U.S. Senate nominee Adam Laxalt (L) poses with Nevada Attorney General candidate Sigal Chattah for a group photo during a "Get Out The Vote" campaign rally in Las Vegas, on Oct. 22, 2022. David Becker/Getty Images

A federal appeals court on Aug. 17 declared Sigal Chattah’s appointment as top federal prosecutor in Nevada invalid and barred her from supervising criminal prosecutions.

The case goes back to April 1, 2025, when President Donald Trump appointed Chattah as interim U.S. attorney for Nevada. Two days before her initial 120-day term was about to run out, then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi changed her title to “first assistant” to permit her to continue leading the office.

In an attempt to have indictments of criminal defendants who were charged during Chattah’s tenure dismissed, the Nevada Federal Public Defender filed a motion challenging indictments brought by her office after her initial term expired. In the alternative, the motion sought to have her disqualified from the cases.

In late September 2025, U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell disqualified Chattah from several felony cases and declared that her appointment by the Trump administration was not valid. The case was heard in Arizona because all the federal district judges in Nevada recused themselves.

Campbell sided with defense lawyers who had argued that Chattah’s authority expired in July of that year.

On Aug. 17, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court, finding in three consolidated cases that her appointment was invalid and barring her from overseeing federal criminal prosecutions.

“These cases present the question whether the Attorney General can make someone an Acting United States Attorney—bypassing the usual requirement that a U.S. Attorney be confirmed by the Senate—by designating that person as the first assistant to an already-vacant office of U.S. Attorney,” U.S. Circuit Judge Eric D. Miller said in the written opinion.

“We hold that the Attorney General cannot do so.”

Even though the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 states that a first assistant automatically succeeds to a vacant office, the rule only covers a first assistant who held that position when the vacancy arose. “It does not apply to a first assistant who never served under a validly appointed official,” Miller said.

Nor can an attorney general make someone a de facto acting U.S. attorney by delegating all functions and duties of the office to another person, he said.

The act is “the exclusive means for temporarily authorizing an acting official to perform the functions and duties of any office,” so it does not allow all of a U.S. attorney’s powers to be delegated to a single individual, the judge said.

Although the panel upheld the order barring Chattah from overseeing the cases, it rejected the defendants’ request to dismiss the indictments.

Campbell had stayed, pending appeal, the order he issued disqualifying Chattah, allowing her to continue supervising cases in the interim, but the Ninth Circuit ruling causes the disqualification order to take effect.

Asked to comment on the new ruling, the U.S. Department of Justice told The Epoch Times, “We disagree with the Ninth Circuit’s decision and we plan to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court.”

Meanwhile, Trump nominated George Kelesis to be U.S. attorney for Nevada in February. The nomination is pending in the U.S. Senate. Kelesis is currently the chairman of the Nevada Tax Commission.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.