‘You are fired, Donald Kinsella,’ Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on social media.
The White House on Feb. 11 terminated the newly appointed interim U.S. attorney for New York’s Northern District just hours after federal judges chose him to fill the vacancy.
Donald T. Kinsella, 79, who served as a longtime federal prosecutor and as a criminal chief in the Justice Department, was sworn in during a private ceremony. The appointment by a panel of Northern District judges comes after a court ruling that the previous acting U.S. attorney, John A. Sarcone III, had been serving unlawfully.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the firing on social media.
Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does. See Article II of our Constitution. You are fired, Donald Kinsella. https://t.co/XUYRgaqG2T
— Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) February 12, 2026
“Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does. See Article II of our Constitution,” Blanche said in a post on X. “You are fired, Donald Kinsella.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Kinsella for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
The Northern District comprises 32 counties in upstate New York, including Syracuse and Albany. It handles cases ranging from public corruption to drug trafficking.
President Donald Trump had nominated Sarcone as U.S. attorney, but his appointment was blocked in the U.S. Senate. Sarcone was then sworn in as interim U.S. attorney, a role that does not require Senate confirmation.
Last month, a federal judge ruled that Sarcone was unlawfully serving as the top federal prosecutor in the state’s capital, Albany, and blocked his involvement in an investigation of state Attorney General Letitia James.
The U.S. Department of Justice had argued Sarcone was properly appointed.
U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield noted in her ruling that Sarcone was initially appointed, effective March 17, 2025, to serve as interim U.S. attorney for 120 days. When that term ran out, the judges in his judicial district failed to extend his term as they had the discretion to do under federal law.
“Federal law then required the use of other statutory procedures to fill the position,” Schofield said. “The Department of Justice did not follow those procedures.”
Instead, the judge said, the Justice Department “took coordinated steps—through personnel moves and shifting titles—to install Mr. Sarcone as Acting U.S. Attorney. Federal law does not permit such a workaround.”
