Donald T. Kinsella was sworn in as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York Wednesday evening. Four hours later, President Trump fired him from his post.
Federal judges appointed Kinsella, 79, to be upstate New York’s top prosecutor earlier Wednesday and swore him in later in the day. Just hours after taking over the office, he received an email from the White House firing him, without explanation.
Kinsella did not share the email with MS NOW but described it in a phone interview on Thursday, saying it was sent by a White House staffer who was “directed by the president to remove me.”
Kinsella says he laughed when he opened it: “I was not surprised by the firing.”
“When I agreed to take the [position], I knew there was a possibility that the president would fire me.” But, he added, he didn’t think it would happen on his first day.
“I probably set a record.”
Late Wednesday night, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed the firing in a post on X, writing: “Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, POTUS does. See Article II of our Constitution. You are fired, Donald Kinsella.”
Kinsella assumed the position to fill the vacancy left by the interim U.S. Attorney John Sarcone III, who was backed by Trump and eventually deemed unlawfully appointed by a federal judge.
While Blanche’s post implies the White House fired Kinsella over the way in which he was appointed, the process of that appointment is in accordance with the law. It states that the Attorney General can appoint a U.S. Attorney to serve on an interim basis for a term of 120 days without Senate confirmation. Once that term expires, federal law allows the district court’s judges to appoint a U.S. Attorney until a vacancy is filled.
The process is not uncommon and there have been other recent examples.
Judges in the Eastern District of Virginia unanimously appointed Erik Siebert to serve as U.S. Attorney after his 120 day term as the interim U.S. Attorney expired. He served in that role until he was pressured to resign after declining to bring charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Federal judges also appointed Trump-backed Jay Clayton of the Southern District of New York after his interim term had expired. He continues to serve as the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan.
Kinsella is a seasoned attorney with over 50 years of criminal and civil litigation practice. Even so, he says he was a reluctant hire. “I didn’t wake up one day and say gee, I’m going to do this,” Kinsella told MS NOW.
“The court contacted me about doing this and I agreed … I took an oath to support and defend the constitution.”
Kinsella has litigated several high-profile federal and state criminal cases in New York and he knows the district well, working there as an assistant U.S. attorney in 1989. He prosecuted cases for the office for nearly over a decade before being promoted to criminal chief of the office and held that position until he retired from public service in 2002. He has also served as the president of the Federal Court Bar Association of the Northern District of New York.
He says he is “not a political person” and simply answered the call to serve. But he expressed concern over the apparent politicization of the Department of Justice. In his decades with the department, he says he couldn’t remember a time quite like this. “Nobody ever paid attention to what party you belonged to,” he said.
The Trump Administration has appointed a number of allies who have pursued criminal investigations — at the president’s behest — into his perceived political enemies. Some of these appointees have been found to be unlawfully appointed. And some of those, including John Sarcone, reportedly had fraught relationships with the judges in their districts.
Kinsella feels his appointment was an attempt to mend that relationship. “I trust our judges in the district to have a sense of what’s going on” he said, “and it appears they were trying to take some part in making sure that things were going to improve.”
Following his firing, the federal judges praised Kinsella.
“The Court thanks Donald T. Kinsella for his willingness to return to public service so that this vacancy could be filled with a qualified, experienced former prosecutor and for his years of distinguished work on behalf of the citizens of the Northern District of New York,” the judges wrote in a statement.
Questions remain about the legality of Kinsella’s firing, but he told MS NOW he does not intend to seek legal recourse. Kinsella spoke with the judges informally on Thursday. He says he has “no idea” if they plan to appoint someone new, but he accepts that it will not be him.
Fallon Gallagher is a legal affairs reporter for MS NOW.