US Attorney says disqualification ruling has no effect – NBC Los Angeles

Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli says a judge’s decision this week that he has been unlawfully occupying the role of head federal prosecutor for Southern California will have no impact and he will continue to lead the office.

“I’m still here, I’m not planning to go anywhere,” Essayli said when answering reporters’ questions Wednesday about the decision, at an unrelated news conference to announce the arrests of more people accused of assaulting federal agents during immigration enforcement operations.

“All this is semantics, titles, what matters is at the end of the day is that the President won the election, the President gets to control and run the executive branch, and through the Attorney General they get to appoint and designate they people they want to serve at their pleasure,” Essayli said.

US District Court Judge J. Michael Seabright ruled late Tuesday that the mechanism the US Department of Justice had used to keep Essayli in the role of US Attorney since July was unlawful, but that Essayli could continue to work as ‘first assistant US Attorney’ in the office, and the judge declined to dismiss a trio of criminal cases managed under Essayli’s illegitimate tenure.

The Justice Department reasoned in court papers and in oral argument before Judge Seabright that as long as no permanent US Attorney was nominated, Essayli could continue, perhaps indefinitely, to act as the head federal prosecutor, because a federal vacancy statute allows a first assistant to assume that role.

The statute, however, also required that the first assistant be serving in that role when the US Attorney position became vacant, and the federal public defenders who brought the dismissal motion said that happened last January when former US Attorney E. Martin Estrada resigned, and the then-serving first assistant Joe McNally began acting as US Attorney.

Essayli was asked if he believed it was the judge’s intent for the 55-page ruling disqualifying him to have no practical effect.

“If you read the order, he does make it very clear, that I, I have several hats here because I am designated as a special counsel by the Attorney General, I’m assigned to the first assistant US Attorney post, and by default under the vacancies act, uh we believe that makes me, by default, the acting US Attorney,” Essayli said.