A federal judge said Thursday that John Sarcone, the top federal prosecutor in Albany, is serving unlawfully as acting U.S. attorney and cannot participate in an investigation into state Attorney General Letitia James.
U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield quashed two subpoenas seeking records of James’ previous investigations into President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association. She said Sarcone wasn’t properly appointed to his position last year.
“Mr. Sarcone’s service was and is unlawful because it bypassed the statutory requirements that govern who may exercise the powers of a U.S. attorney,” Schofield wrote. “The subpoenas are quashed, and Mr. Sarcone is disqualified from further participation in the underlying investigations.”
Sarcone’s office didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.
A spokesperson for James’ office said the decision is “an important win for the rule of law.”
The ruling is a setback to the Trump administration’s efforts to investigate James, a Democrat who successfully brought fraud charges against Trump and his businesses. Schofield joined other judges in throwing out indictments of Trump’s perceived enemies because the prosecutors who brought them weren’t properly installed. James used a similar argument last year to rebut mortgage fraud charges brought by federal prosecutors in Virginia.
A judge there threw out a two-count indictment against James after determining that Lindsey Halligan, a former White House lawyer, wasn’t properly installed in her post as interim U.S. attorney. Virginia prosecutors tried to refile the charges against James, but were rejected by two different grand juries in the course of a week.
James says she is innocent and the charges are politically motivated. She has said Sarcone’s investigation is also politically motivated and that her cases were brought based on evidence.
Sarcone personally requested the subpoenas of James’ office in August. He previously said he believed James was irresponsible in saying during her 2018 campaign that she would investigate Trump if elected.
James sued Trump and his businesses in 2022, alleging that he inflated the value of his property to obtain favorable loan terms. A judge fined Trump more than $350 million, but the penalty has been set aside as the case is appealed.
Republicans said that case is a witch hunt and that Trump was unfairly targeted. The president has called for “accountability” for James and other perceived critics who have investigated and brought charges against him.
Sarcone, a former Trump campaign lawyer, had never worked as a prosecutor when U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed him interim U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York last spring.
Judges in the district declined to permanently install Sarcone after his 120-day interim term expired. Bondi responded by naming Sarcone a special attorney and designated him as the first assistant U.S. attorney in Albany, making a bureaucratic maneuver to keep him in his post.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Belliss argued in court that Sarcone possessed the legal authority to seek subpoenas and fulfill all the major duties of a U.S. attorney because he was a “special attorney.”
Schofield rejected that argument.
“Federal law does not permit such a workaround,” she wrote.
