Federal judges in upstate New York appointed a new U.S. attorney on Wednesday only to see him abruptly fired by the White House, in the latest clash between the Trump administration and the judiciary.

Donald T. Kinsella, 79, was appointed as U.S. attorney in the Northern District of New York in a private ceremony Wednesday. But just hours later, Kinsella said, he received an email from a White House official telling him that he was being removed from the post.

Reached by phone Wednesday evening, Kinsella said that he did not yet know whether the White House email carried the force of law. He said he would discuss the matter with the district judges in the morning and go from there.

The Trump administration had previously suggested it would fire any prosecutor chosen by district judges. It is unclear whether the Northern District judges will have any recourse.

“Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does,” said Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, in a social media post Wednesday. “See Article II of our Constitution. You are fired, Donald Kinsella.”

Kinsella has more than 50 years of experience as a criminal and civil litigator. He is a former criminal chief of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District, which prosecutes crime in a broad swath of New York state, including Albany, Syracuse and Utica. His hiring and firing were first reported by The Times Union in Albany.

He had been set to replace John A. Sarcone III, whom a judge found last month was serving in the position unlawfully. This week, Sarcone dropped the title of acting U.S. attorney — his 210-day term had expired — and his office’s website now lists him as first assistant, typically the title of a U.S. attorney’s top deputy.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, criticized Kinsella’s firing in a statement.

“Everyone knows Trump only cares about one quality in a U.S. attorney: complete political subservience,” he said. “The people of upstate New York deserve a qualified, independent prosecutor, not another political loyalist.”

Federal judges have found a number of U.S. attorneys whose appointments were the result of unusual legal maneuvers by the Trump administration to be serving unlawfully.

Along with Sarcone, they include Alina Habba, who was the acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, and Lindsey Halligan, formerly the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as well as a handful of others.

Habba and Halligan both left their respective offices in recent months.

Sarcone has had a difficult relationship with the judges in his district, who declined to appoint him after his interim tenure expired in July.

He had no experience as a prosecutor before he was appointed. He made a series of unusual moves in office, many of which were assiduously documented by The Times Union, which Sarcone removed from his office’s press distribution list.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Jonah E. Bromwich/Johnny Milano
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