{"id":5142,"date":"2026-08-21T15:37:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5142"},"modified":"2026-08-21T15:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:37:18","slug":"federal-court-slaps-down-trumps-unlawful-lawfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5142","title":{"rendered":"Federal court slaps down Trump\u2019s ‘unlawful’ lawfare"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

On Friday, a federal court dealt a huge blow to President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to weaponize the Department of Justice, ruling that a U.S. attorney who obtained grand jury subpoenas targeting New York Attorney General Letitia James had been illegally appointed<\/u>. According to the 2nd Circuit Court\u2019s opinion, \u201cThis case concerns whether John A. Sarcone III validly served as, and lawfully exercised the duties of, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York.\u201d In the court\u2019s assessment, \u201cWe hold that he did not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Maggie Haberman sounds alarm: \u2018We don\u2019t know how secure\u2019 Trump\u2019s phone is<\/a><\/p>\n

The case dates back to August 2025, when Trump loyalist Sarcone issued subpoenas to James\u2019 office in an attempt to undermine civil lawsuits the latter filed against Trump, his family business, and the National Rifle Association. Both Trump and the NRA were found liable, but claimed they were being targeted politically. Sarcone\u2019s subpoenas were part of an effort to bring charges against James, whom he accused of violating Trump and the NRA\u2019s civil rights. His inquest ultimately failed to bring charges. <\/p>\n

James filed suit questioning the validity of the subpoenas, which a lower court quashed, at the same time disqualifying Sarcone from future involvement with the investigation. The DOJ then appealed to a higher court, which sided 2-1 with the original determination. <\/p>\n

Read more Hometown news questions whether Republican is lying about his wealth<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the new opinion, \u201cWe hold that Sarcone was not serving as Acting U.S. Attorney when he obtained the subpoenas\u201d and that \u201cthe general delegation to Sarcone of all the duties of the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office was an unlawful\u201d use of authority. He therefore lacked the power to obtain subpoenas, so the court affirmed their quashing. What\u2019s more, the court noted that the government\u2019s appeal never offered an argument as to why the lower court erred in disqualifying Sarcone from future investigations, so that order was upheld as well. The majority judges were appointed by Presidents Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, while a third dissenting judge had been appointed by Trump. <\/p>\n

The subpoenas have been part of Trump\u2019s wide-ranging lawfare effort against James, who had indicted the president for fraud after it was found he had inflated the value of his properties. Trump was initially fined over $450 million, but the financial penalty was later thrown out on appeal. Since then, however, Trump has been vocal about his desire for revenge, declaring on the 2024 campaign trail that James should “be arrested and punished accordingly.\u201d Once he returned to office, his DOJ indicted James under allegations of mortgage fraud. These charges were thrown out when a court found that the U.S. attorney leading the case had been \u2013 like Sarcone \u2013 illegally appointed<\/u>. <\/p>\n

Read more Reporter reveals true motive behind Cohen\u2019s \u2018sick love affair\u2019 with Trump<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, a federal court dealt a huge blow to President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to weaponize the Department of Justice, ruling that a U.S. attorney who obtained grand jury subpoenas targeting New York Attorney General Letitia James had been illegally appointed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nFederal court slaps down Trump\u2019s 'unlawful' lawfare - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5142\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal court slaps down Trump\u2019s 'unlawful' lawfare - 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