Sigal Chattah, representing Guard the Constitution Project Founder Shawn Meehan, and Monti Levy, representing Nevada Republican Party delegate Eileen Rice, appeared in court in Las Vegas on Monday, March 4, 2024. A judge rescheduled the trial for six Republicans accused of falsely certifying Donald Trump as Nevada’s 2020 presidential election winner, moving it to January 2025. (Wade Vandervort/Las Vegas Sun via AP).
One of the U.S. attorneys controversially appointed by the Trump administration without Senate approval seems poised to continue challenging Trump’s 2020 election defeat. Meanwhile, Nevada criminal defendants argue she should be removed from prosecuting cases, akin to former Trump attorney Alina Habba.
According to a Reuters report, the latest update on Sigal Chattah details her request to Director Kash Patel’s FBI to explore disproven Republican claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. She hopes this investigation will affect congressional races and involve Democrats. Additionally, Chattah aims to “clear” the Republican fake electors she once represented, which raises concerns about ethics and conflicts of interest due to her connections with the accused and the GOP.
Chattah gained attention after becoming acting U.S. attorney. Following her resignation from the interim role but before her 120-day term ended, Trump and the DOJ reappointed her under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. This action bypassed the constitutional necessity for Senate-confirmed, permanent U.S. attorneys, as seen with the likes of Alina Habba in New Jersey and John Sarcone in New York, whom federal courts declined to appoint.
Bilal “Bill” Essayli’s authority is similarly contested in California, and questions linger over the legitimacy of former Trump attorney Lindsey Halligan’s appointment in Virginia concerning ex-FBI Director James Comey.
As of September 24, Senior U.S. District Judge David Campbell reviewed the challenge against Chattah, with the group seeking her disqualification awaiting a written decision, as per the court docket examined by Law&Crime.
To date, Chattah has claimed that those resisting her authority are doing so not for legal reasons but political ones, given her previous job as a defense attorney.
In August, Chattah told local CBS affiliate KLAS that her critics are “scared” that she knows “where all the bodies are buried” due to her work in private practice.
“You know, a lot of these people, I know that they’re scared because I know where a lot of the bodies are buried because I come from the defense world,” Chattah said after her resignation and reappointment. “Without saying too much about my previous experience as a defense attorney, but when you played that side, you know where all the bodies are buried. Sometimes we even choose the location to bury them.”
