The Trump administration moved Wednesday to keep in place Charles “Chas” Calenda as Rhode Island’s top federal prosecutor – a move considered by Democrats as a breach of the protocol for filling the position.
Calenda’s interim appointment as U.S. attorney for Rhode Island expired April 28, but he said he remains the leader of the office.
“Effective today, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has appointed me Special Attorney and First Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island,” Calenda said in a statement.
Calenda said he was grateful to Blanche “and the Trump administration for their continued support in allowing me to lead the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island. While my title may have changed, my goals and the mission of this office have not.”
Democratic U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse sharply objected when Calenda was appointed as interim U.S. attorney last December.
“Despite good-faith efforts at a bipartisan nomination process with the Trump White House,” Whitehouse, a former U.S. attorney, said in a statement at the time, “the MAGA Department of Justice insisted on a MAGA stooge with neither the qualifications nor temperament for this position.”
U.S. senators have traditionally been given something akin to veto power under the “blue slip” process for some federal nominees.
Federal prosecutors’ offices in New Jersey, the Eastern District of Virginia and the Northern District of New York have been marked by an unusual level of turnover without permanent leadership, “as the Trump administration keeps trying to install loyalists — and courts keep rejecting them,” according to Politico.
U.S. attorneys lead the investigation and prosecution of federal crimes, typically involving such things as gun crimes, child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud.
The Constitution gives federal courts the power to fill an interim vacancy for the position, but that is not happening in Rhode Island – perhaps due to unsettled fallout from legal challenges to the Trump administration’s approach.
In a statement, John J. McConnell, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Providence, said, “This court has carefully considered its power to appoint an interim U.S. Attorney under these factors and concluded that, to continue the uninterrupted and orderly operation of the federal criminal justice system in Rhode Island, and to ensure the non-political professional operation of the U.S. attorney’s office, at this time it will not exercise its option to make such an appointment.”
Calenda ran for attorney general in Rhode Island in 2022.
Calenda said that since his interim appointment, “I have endeavored to run the Office at the highest levels of efficiency, integrity and professionalism. The Court’s Order acknowledges those same goals for the Office and in declining to exercise its appointment authority, that the Office’s continued professionalism and non-partisan work, along with continuity of leadership, are paramount to ensuring the Office remains focused on the best interests of the people of Rhode Island.”
