Judges in the Eastern District of Virginia unanimously selected lawyer James Hundley to serve as the district's top federal prosecutor.

Hours later, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche took to X and ended the appointment before it could begin.

"EDVA judges do not pick our US Attorney. POTUS does. James Hundley, you're fired!"

The firing marks the latest clash over who actually controls the appointment of U.S. attorneys, and the Trump administration is not leaving the question open to interpretation.

The Appointment That Lasted Hours

The sequence of events Friday was brisk. NewsMax reports that Hundley was unanimously chosen by the district court judges of the Eastern District of Virginia to replace Lindsey Halligan, a former Trump lawyer who previously held the U.S. attorney post. The law does allow district courts to choose U.S. attorneys when an initial appointment expires.

The Justice Department responded by firing Hundley almost immediately.

There is a statute on the books that contemplates judicial selection of U.S. attorneys in narrow circumstances. The Trump administration's position is equally clear: the power to appoint U.S. attorneys belongs to the executive branch, full stop. The President nominates. The Senate confirms. Judges don't get a say in who prosecutes federal cases on behalf of the United States government.

Why This District Matters

The Eastern District of Virginia is not some sleepy judicial backwater. The office has pursued cases described as targeting foes of President Trump, which makes the question of who leads it more than an academic turf dispute. It is a question of prosecutorial direction, and prosecutorial direction is executive power in its most concentrated form.

When judges pick prosecutors, the entire architecture of separated powers bends. Prosecutors answer to the President through the Attorney General.

That chain of accountability exists for a reason. A U.S. attorney selected by the judges before whom he will appear has a fundamentally different set of loyalties than one selected by the elected executive. The founders understood this. The administration understands it now.

The Bigger Fight Over Executive Authority

This skirmish fits a pattern that has defined the current administration's approach to the federal bureaucracy. For decades, the permanent apparatus of government has operated with a kind of soft independence from the presidents who are supposed to direct it. Agencies set their own priorities. Career officials outlast political appointees. And in cases like this one, courts have occasionally stepped into roles the Constitution reserved for the political branches.

The administration's willingness to act swiftly rather than negotiate or defer sends a signal. It tells the judiciary that filling executive branch vacancies is not a judicial prerogative. It tells the permanent class in Washington that personnel decisions flow from the top. And it tells the public that the President they elected is the one directing federal law enforcement, not a panel of unelected judges.

Critics will frame this as authoritarian overreach. They always do. But the underlying principle is simple: prosecutors work for the executive. If the judges of the Eastern District of Virginia want to shape how federal law is enforced, they can do what the Constitution envisions and rule on the cases that come before them. Picking the prosecutor is someone else's job.

What Comes Next

Whether Hundley contests his firing remains unknown. The administration has made its position public, loud, and deliberately theatrical. Blanche's post on X borrowed the most famous phrase in reality television for a reason.

The message was not just for Hundley. It was for every court that might consider exercising this statutory provision in the future.

The Eastern District of Virginia will get a U.S. attorney. The President will choose that person. And the judges who tried to do it for him just learned how that conversation ends.