The loophole that keeps a Trump loyalist serving as L.A.s top federal prosecutor
This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.
Across the country, President Trump has installed handpicked loyalists as top federal prosecutors.Several have been pushed out after legal battles because they lack Senate confirmation to serve as U.S.
attorneys.But in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli wields the power of a top prosecutor under a lesser title: “first assistant.”Essayli clocked his first full year in office this week.
He has survived the kinds of challenges that sunk Trump picks in other states through a combination of legal gamesmanship by the U.S.Department of Justice and a lack of action by judges in the Central District of California.Essayli has used his position to act as one of Trump’s fiercest legal foot soldiers.
He has pursued criminal charges against protesters, activists and immigrants while dropping cases involving administration allies and supporting lawsuits over transgender and environmental policies in California.California The Trump administration said it had sent a letter to Gov.
Gavin Newsom informing him of a federal investigation into two state women’s prisons to determine ‘if those prisons unconstitutionally provided housing and preferential treatment to biological male prisoners.’After Trump’s firing Thursday of U.S.Atty.
Gen.Pam Bondi, it’s unclear how her replacement will handle continuing battles over the legality of Trump’s appointees.
Essayli is popular with high-level administration officials, and received a congratulatory post on X from Vice President JD Vance over the filing of fraud cases earlier this week.A conservative former state Assembly member from Riverside County, Essayli, 40, was sworn in as interim U.S.
attorney last April.Around the time he hit that role’s 120-day limit, Bondi made him a “special attorney” and designated him “first assistant.” A federal judge later disqualified Essayli as acting U.S.
attorney, finding he was “not lawfully serv...