The White House fired the top federal prosecutor for upstate New York just hours after he was sworn into office Wednesday.
Donald Kinsella, who has worked for decades as a government attorney and in private practice, was appointed and sworn in as the U.S. attorney in the Northern District of New York in a private ceremony, the court said on its website. Later that day, he was fired in an email from the White House.
Kinsella told NBC News on Thursday that the email came from Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel Morgan DeWitt Snow and that it said the “president directed that I be removed,” without any explanation.
When reached for comment, the White House directed NBC News to a social media post by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does. See Article II of our Constitution. You are fired, Donald Kinsella,” Blanche said in a post on X on Wednesday night.
Kinsella’s hiring and firing was first reported by The Times Union in Albany, N.Y.
The U.S. District Court of the Northern District of New York defended Kinsella’s appointment in a statement Thursday, writing that it appointed him for the position of U.S. attorney, a role that was vacant, through its judicial authority to “appoint a United States Attorney to serve until the vacancy is filled.”
The court cited Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution in justifying Kinsella’s appointment, writing that the Constitution states in part that “Congress may by Law vest the Appointment” of officials such as United States Attorneys “in the Courts of Law.”
Kinsella was appointed to succeed John Sarcone III, a Trump loyalist who was removed from the post after a federal judge ruled in January that he was serving in the position unlawfully.
U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield ruled last month that the Justice Department had taken improper steps in its efforts to keep Sarcone in his post beyond the 120-day limit for U.S. attorneys who have not been confirmed by the Senate.
Sarcone is one of several prosecutors who judges have ruled were serving unlawfully after being appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan, a former insurance attorney with no prior prosecutorial experience who led unsuccessful cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, stepped down from her position as the top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia last month, after a judge ruled she was “masquerading” as U.S. attorney.
Her departure came after an appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that disqualified President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Alina Habba from serving as acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey. In its ruling, the appeals court said Habba’s appointment violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
In its statement Thursday, the district court for the Northern District of New York thanked Kinsella for “his willingness to return to public service so that this vacancy could be filled with a qualified, experienced former prosecutor, and for his years of distinguished work on behalf of the citizens of the Northern District of New York.”
Kinsella served as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1989 until 1998, when he was promoted to lead the criminal division of the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York. He left that position in 2002.
