Top US prosecutor appointed to New York Albany office by judges is immediately ousted
Feb 12, 2026, 8:31 AM | Updated: 9:48 am
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The appointment of Donald T. Kinsella as the federal government’s top prosecutor by federal judges in northern New York was dead on arrival when word reached Washington’s Justice Department headquarters.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, his smiling picture affixed to his social media feed, ensured that by announcing on Wednesday in a post that judges don’t pick U.S. attorneys, the president does. Then he wrote: “You are fired, Donald Kinsella.”
The online firing of the onetime chief of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District apparently left John A. Sarcone III in charge even after a federal judge last month concluded he was serving as U.S. attorney unlawfully. Sarcone also was quoted in a news release from the office two days ago.
Those who clicked on “Meet the U.S. Attorney” on the web site for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of New York on Thursday were greeted with the “staff profile” page for Sarcone, though his title is now “First Assistant U.S. Attorney.”
A woman who answered the phone at the federal prosecutor’s office in Albany responded to a request to speak with Kinsella by saying: “Technically, he’s not employed with our office anymore.”
Messages were left for Kinsella at Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP, the law firm where he is a senior counsel and where a web site describes him as a 40-year veteran of “complex criminal and civil litigation over a ”distinguished career.”
Emails sent to the web address for media inquiries at the U.S. attorney’s office bounced back on Thursday. An email sent to Sarcone seeking comment on the latest developments was not immediately returned.
Last month, Judge Lorna G. Schofield in New York City blocked subpoenas requested by Sarcone, saying he was not lawfully serving as U.S. attorney and that any “of his past or future acts taken in that capacity are void or voidable as they would rest on authority Mr. Sarcone does not lawfully have.”
Sarcone is among several prosecutors around the country found by federal judges to lack authority after the Republican administration used unusual maneuvers to place them or keep them in their posts without U.S. Senate confirmation.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Jan. 20 that Lindsey Halligan, who pursued indictments against a pair of Trump’s adversaries, was leaving her position in the Eastern District of Virginia as her months-long tenure had concluded. A judge had concluded in November that her appointment was unlawful and that indictments brought there against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey must be dismissed.
In December, Alina Habba r esigned as the top federal prosecutor for New Jersey after an appeals court said she had been serving in the post unlawfully.
Bondi appointed Sarcone to serve as the interim U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York in March. But when his 120-day term elapsed, judges in the district declined to keep him in the post. That same day, the Department of Justice took coordinated steps to install Sarcone as acting U.S. attorney for the district.
On Jan. 8, Schofield ruled that “federal law does not permit such a workaround.”
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Associated Press Writer Larry Neumeister reported from New York City.
