By Steven Barket
The wheels of justice turn slowly. REALLY slowly when it comes to Sigal Chattah’s interim appointment by the Trump Administration as US Attorney General for the District of Nevada.
It’s been four months now — 120 days since April 1, when she assumed her job as interim US Attorney, and pretty much nothing has happened. Chattah’s been coasting along, getting a paycheck, not really shaking anything up, just sort of biding time.
Within the initial 120 days of her appointment, she was supposed to have begun confirmation hearings in front of the US Senate Judiciary Committee. That hasn’t happened, and likely won’t, because the two Democratic Nevada Senators — Jacky Rosen and Katherine Cortez Masto — are vehemently opposed to Chattah — formerly Nevada’s National Committeewoman to the Republican National Committee (RNC) and highly partisan Republican operative — becoming a sitting, full-term US Attorney. They can, and probably will, if it comes to it, use their “blue slip” powers to block Chattah from assuming that office full time.
Chattah likely would face serious opposition from the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee as well, and that likely would get very ugly. All those opposing Democrats would have to do is just read through this website, and they’d have plenty of fodder.
So, here we go again. A day before her 120th day as the appointed interim US Attorney on July 30, Chattah was appointed again, this time to an “acting” US Attorney role. That carries a similar 120-day timeframe in a countdown to being confirmed by the Senate (after facing the Senate Judiciary Committee) to become the permanently appointed US Attorney for the District of Nevada.
Exhausting. Just exhausting.
The problem is, as I’ve heard from a number of attorneys both in and outside of Nevada, that no one really wants that job. It’s pretty thankless, very political, and most top attorneys would be taking a significant pay cut just to take the job. Anybody want to step up? Anyone? (Assuming you’re a conservative who would pass muster with the Trump Administration.)
This looks like it’s going to take a while. We’ll keep things updated here …