Trump Judge Declines to Appoint His Pick as Delaware US Attorney

A Trump-appointed judge in Delaware has declined to appoint the president’s interim US attorney to head the office in the state on an ongoing basis.

Chief Judge Colm Connolly posted a notice dated Thursday that the US District Court for the District of Delaware “declines to exercise its authority” to appoint a US attorney for the district. Connolly notes that the term of current interim US Attorney Julianne Murray expires Nov. 11, without referring to her by name.

Connolly had signaled he didn’t intend to defer to the administration’s choice of Murray, a former Delaware GOP party chair, by soliciting applications for the position in September as part of the court’s own selection process. That prompted a rebuke from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who posted on X that “The responsibilities laid out there make clear that appointments of United States Attorneys are first and foremost the duty of the President, not the courts.”

Connolly was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018 after serving as the US attorney in Delaware and then as a partner at Morgan Lewis & Bockius.

Murray, who’s previously run unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for governor and attorney general in Delaware, has practiced law in the state since 2012 after graduating from Widener University Delaware Law School in 2011.

The Trump DOJ has extended the terms of interim US attorneys in districts such as New Jersey, Nevada, and New Mexico by converting their title to “acting.” The maneuver has drawn multiple legal challenges from defense attorneys seeking to disqualify the top prosecutors.

Courts have authority to approve the interim prosecutor permanently or select their own US attorney when the White House hasn’t nominated a US attorney in the Senate and the interim pick’s term expires. But judges usually agree to retain the administration’s interim selection in these circumstances.