A federal judge in upstate New York ruled Thursday that prosecutor John Sarcone was unlawfully serving in a Trump administration acting U.S. attorney role, and the decision quickly affected other proceedings as well. In a separate ruling the same day, Judge Lorna G. Schofield rejected Sarcone’s bid for a court order requiring the IRS to disclose tax-return information tied to a criminal investigation, citing a lack of legal authority for him to request the records.
The earlier ruling Thursday disqualified Sarcone from overseeing investigations involving Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James. Schofield ruled Sarcone was not lawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, and she said any “of his past or future acts taken in that capacity are void or voidable.” MSI previously covered the judge’s disqualification of Sarcone in the Letitia James investigation.
Sarcone’s status as an acting U.S. attorney has been challenged in courts around the country after federal judges found that he and other prosecutors lacked lawful authority after the Trump administration used unusual maneuvers to place them—or keep them—in the posts without U.S. Senate confirmation.
In the tax-return case, Schofield denied Sarcone’s application for a court order directing the IRS to disclose tax return information for a limited liability company as part of a criminal investigation. The application remained sealed, and it was not clear who made the request for the tax returns in the October 2 filing.
In her ruling, Schofield said applications for that kind of tax information can only be made by officials holding specific positions, including U.S. attorneys. She concluded Sarcone lacked authority to authorize the application because, under her reasoning, he was not lawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney—mirroring the logic she used in the case involving James.
The judge’s decision added to a growing body of court rulings that have questioned similar arrangements for acting U.S. attorneys. The AP report said courts in New Jersey, Nevada and California have held that acting U.S. attorneys installed in comparable ways lacked lawful authority.
In connection with the New Jersey dispute, the AP report said Trump’s former personal attorney, Alina Habba, resigned as the top federal prosecutor for New Jersey in December after an appeals court said she had been serving unlawfully.
Carl Tobias, a professor of law at the University of Richmond, told AP that Schofield’s ruling was consistent with earlier decisions. “It does seem like more and more courts are coming around to this view,” he said, as the legality of acting-prosecutor placements continues to face judicial scrutiny.
An email seeking comment was sent to the Northern District of New York.