A federal appeals court ruled on August 21, 2026, that John Sarcone was not lawfully serving as acting United States Attorney when he subpoenaed Letitia James last year. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit said the subpoenas were issued by a prosecutor who did not have the job power the Justice Department claimed he did.
James is the person at the center of the fight. She was subpoenaed in August 2025 as part of probes into her office’s handling of investigations into the NRA and Mr. Trump, then went to court to quash the demands. The ruling gives her challenge new force and puts the legality of the subpoenas in doubt just as the Justice Department says it will take the dispute straight to the Supreme Court.
The case matters because it reaches beyond one set of subpoenas. Sarcone had been leading the U.S. Attorney's Office in Albany for more than a year, but his authority became the issue after his initial interim appointment expired. When the 120 days ran out, judges in the district declined to keep him in place. Attorney General Pam Bondi then named him a special attorney and first assistant U.S. attorney, and the Justice Department argued that those titles let him be elevated for 210 days.
Judge Guido Calabresi rejected that reading. He wrote that “Text, structure, and history all point the same way,” and said that only the First Assistant already in place when a vacancy opens may become the acting officer under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. Sarcone, he wrote, “was not.” The court also said the law only allows a deputy already in place when the vacancy begins to move into the acting role, while Sarcone was named months after the office had already become vacant.
That is the friction point the government now has to live with. The Justice Department said Sarcone’s special attorney title gave him subpoena power, but the appeals court said the acting appointment itself was unlawful. For the Trump administration, the ruling undercuts one of the tools it has used to keep preferred U.S. attorney picks in office without Senate confirmation, and it leaves the subpoenas vulnerable unless the Supreme Court steps in quickly. That next move is now the whole case.
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