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The dismissal of the U.S. Attorney in the Fresno area before a full-time nominee was appointed was unusual, a man who previously held the job tells GV Wire.

The Trump administration dismissed Michele Beckwith on Tuesday as acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, replacing her with Kim Sanchez, who will also serve in an acting capacity.

“It’s very unusual. It is out of the norm,” McGregor Scott said.

Traditionally, the first assistant is named acting U.S. attorney, until a candidate is nominated and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. An acting attorney appointed by the administration can serve up to 120 days. After that, the chief judge for the district — Troy Nunley — would make the pick. That pick would serve until a successor is confirmed.

“It’s very unusual. It is out of the norm.” — former U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott on the dismissal of Michele Beckwith

Scott served as the top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of California for two stints — from 2003 to 2009 under former President George W. Bush, and 2017 to 2021 during President Donald Trump’s first term. He is now in private practice at King & Spalding in Sacramento.

Beckwith, formerly the first assistant in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento, became acting U.S. attorney after Phillip Talbert left in January — a normal occurrence during a change of presidential administration. Scott said that in such circumstances the acting attorney usually returns to their previous position.

“I’m not surprised at all they appointed Kim Sanchez to be the acting U.S. attorney. I think that’s a normal thing,” Scott said. “What’s not normal or typical is literally the firing or the termination of the federal employment of the acting U.S. attorney. I do not know why that happened and I’m not going to speculate.”

He was surprised the move from Beckwith to Sanchez did not happen sooner.

“The Eastern District sometimes can be an afterthought because we’re not San Francisco, we’re not Los Angeles, and we’re at the border in San Diego. So Sacramento sometimes is not given the attention that it’s due by the people in Washington, D.C. of both parties. But I think it was sort of a backburner issue and they felt like they had to move on the others more quickly,” Scott said.

Praise for Sanchez

Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp and Scott praised Sanchez becoming the acting U.S. attorney.

“Kim Sanchez is probably the hardest-working prosecutor that we have in Fresno County,” Smittcamp said. “She is experienced. She is fair. She is nonpolitical. She is hard-charging. And she is really all about justice and public safety for the people.”

Scott hired Sanchez as a federal prosecutor in 2005.

“When I came back as Trump U.S. attorney, I promoted her to a management position. I think she’s eminently qualified. I think this is an excellent selection by the administration. And she will do a very fine job as the acting U.S. attorney,” Scott said.

Smittcamp Says No Way

Smittcamp said she is “absolutely not” interested in serving as U.S. attorney.

“I don’t have any political aspirations to run for any (other) office or switch over to the federal system.” — Fresno County DA Lisa Smittcamp

“Because I am a county prosecutor. That is my job. That is my chosen profession. That is my calling in life. And I will retire from this job and never do another one as long as I live,”Smittcamp said. “I don’t have any political aspirations to run for any (other) office or switch over to the federal system.”

Moving to federal law is “a whole different world,” Smittcamp said.

Smittcamp said she plans to run for re-election in 2028. A recent appellate court decision upheld a state law that pushed next election date to 2028, granting Smittcamp a one-time-only six-year term. She was last elected in 2022.

“I’m gearing up, ready to go,” Smittcamp said.

Smittcamp called the change in state law “irresponsible” and “flawed.” She questioned the county’s legal approach to challenging the law, defending Measure A — passed by voters in 2024 to keep the 2026 election date — rather than attacking the constitutionality of a six-year term.

McGregor answered “resoundingly no” when asked if he’s interested in again leading the U.S Attorney’s office.

Both Smittcamp and Scott said they’ve heard of people expressing interest in the position, but didn’t reveal their names.

Tradition of Leaving With Administration Change

Scott followed the tradition of stepping down as U.S. Attorney with a change in administrations. He left his first term on Jan. 4, 2009, weeks before Barack Obama took the oath of office. He waited until Feb. 28, 2021 to leave the second time.

“Then January 6th happened. So I stuck around a little bit longer,” Scott said. “(The attorney) gets out of the way so that the new administration can put their own people in.”

Scott’s replacement, Phillip Talbert, left office Jan. 7 of this year.

Donald Trump fired a top federal prosecutor in Sacramento just hours after she warned immigration agents they could not indiscriminately detain people in her district, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times.

Michele Beckwith, who became the acting US attorney in Sacramento in January, received an email at 4.31pm on 15 July notifying her that the president had ordered her termination.

The day before, Beckwith had received a phone call from Gregory Bovino, who leads the Border Patrol’s unit in El Centro, a border city 600 miles south of Sacramento. Bovino was planning an immigration raid in Sacramento and asked Beckwith who in her office to contact if his officers were assaulted, the Times reported, citing Beckwith.

She informed Bovino that agents were not allowed to indiscriminately stop people in her district, north of Bakersfield, per a federal court order issued in April that prevents the agency from detaining people without reasonable suspicion. The US supreme court overturned a similar court order issued in Los Angeles earlier this month.

In a 10.57am email on 15 July, Beckwith repeated her message, telling Bovino she expected “compliance with court orders and the constitution”. Less than six hours later, her work computer and cellphone no longer functioning, she received a letter to her personal email account notifying her that she had been terminated.

Two days later, Bovino proceeded with his immigration raid at a Sacramento Home Depot.

“Folks, there is no such thing as a sanctuary city,” he said in a video he shared from the California state capitol building.

“The former acting US attorney’s email suggesting that the United States Border Patrol does not ALWAYS abide by the constitution revealed a bias against law enforcement,” Bovino said in a statement to the New York Times. “The supreme court’s decision is evidence of the fact Border Patrol follows the constitution and the fourth amendment.”

On 8 September, the supreme court ruled that federal immigration agents can stop people solely based on their race, language or job, overturning the decision of a Los Angeles judge who had ordered immigration agents to halt sweeping raids there.

Beckwith’s firing is one of a series of federal firings, including of prosecutors who did not abide by the president’s agenda. Last week, US attorney Erik Siebert resigned under intense pressure and Trump replaced him with his special assistant Lindsey Halligan just hours after ordering his attorney general Pam Bondi to do so in a since deleted social media post.

Siebert had been overseeing investigations into Letitia James and James Comey. Beckwith has appealed against her termination, according to the Times.

“I’m an American who cares about her country,” she told the paper. “We have to stand up and insist the laws be followed.”

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Michele Beckwith is out as acting U.S. Attorney for the sprawling Eastern District of California, which includes Fresno County.

Department of Justice spokesperson Lauren Horwood confirmed that Beckwith was terminated on Tuesday. Kimberly Sanchez replaces her as new acting U.S. Attorney.

Beckwith, a Democrat, was named acting attorney, replacing Phillip Talbert in January.

Talbert, also a Democrat, resigned weeks prior to President Donald Trump taking office. He twice led the office, under President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama.

Beckwith worked for the DOJ for 15 years, serving as First Assistant U.S. Attorney before her appointment as acting U.S. Attorney.

Sanchez, a Republican, served as chief of the Fresno U.S. Attorney’s office, and recently announced a major gang takedown, Operation Shock Collar.

She was installed as part of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. Her law license is through the state of Pennsylvania. Federal attorneys must be a bar member, licensed by any state, Horwood said.

Trump has not named a full-time nominee for the office.

About the Eastern District

The Eastern District is one of the largest in the country — in population and landmass. It has almost eight million residents and encompasses six large urban areas: Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton, Vallejo, and Fairfield.

The district covers 87,000 square miles, 45% of which is federal land such as Yosemite National Park, and includes 34 counties.

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DAVIS, Calif. — For 15 years, Michele Beckwith oversaw some of the toughest federal prosecutions in California. She went after transnational terrorists, sex traffickers and the Aryan Brotherhood.

She became the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento, California, this year when her boss, a Biden appointee, stepped down in January.

But her career crumbled in July, she said, after she issued a warning to Gregory Bovino, the California face of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The dismissal of Beckwith appears to be another example of how Trump has fired top federal prosecutors who did not help carry out his political agenda.

Her ouster came weeks before Trump fired a U.S. attorney in Virginia who determined there was insufficient evidence to indict James Comey, the former FBI director, and Letitia James, the New York state attorney general, both political targets of the president. The Virginia prosecutor was replaced by a Trump loyalist who persuaded a federal grand jury Thursday to indict Comey on two counts.

Firing Occurred 6 Hours After Telling Bovino

Documents reviewed by The New York Times show that the July 15 firing of Beckwith occurred less than six hours after she told Bovino, the Border Patrol chief in charge of the Southern California raids, that a court order prevented him from arresting people without probable cause in a vast expanse that stretches from the Oregon border to Bakersfield, California. She was removed not only from her post as acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of California, but from the office altogether.

“It’s unjust,” she said of the firings across the federal government this year. “We have to stand up and insist the laws be followed.”

Beckwith, a Democrat, was replaced temporarily by Kimberly Sanchez, a Republican who also worked in the Eastern District. Two days later, Bovino and his agents went to Sacramento and raided a Home Depot parking lot, where they said they arrested at least eight people for being in the country without authorization.

The end of Beckwith’s federal career was precipitated by a phone call from Bovino on July 14. He told her that he was bringing his officers to Sacramento, about 600 miles north of the Mexico border, and wanted to know whom to notify in her office if they were assaulted, she recalled.

Beckwith said she reminded him that the Border Patrol was under a federal court order prohibiting it from stopping people indiscriminately in her district. It was clear, she said, that he knew about the order but did not seem to think it would stop his raid.

At 10:57 the next morning, she emailed Bovino to reiterate that she expected “compliance with court orders and the Constitution.”

Hours later, her work cellphone went dark. Then her computer did, too. She checked her personal email account.

At 4:31 p.m., she received an email from Saurabh Sharma, special assistant to Trump.

“Michele,” it stated, “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as First Assistant United States Attorney and employment with the Department of Justice is terminated, effective immediately.”

Beckwith Quickly Removed

Beckwith was promptly marched out of the office.

A spokesperson for Trump referred questions to the Department of Justice, which declined to comment on the matter.

A Department of Homeland Security official, who was part of the Sacramento operation and spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said that federal officials were offended by Beckwith’s suggestion that immigration agents were going to violate the rights of migrants.

What’s more, the official said, Bovino felt Beckwith was refusing to provide his team the legal support it needed to safely conduct the operations.

In a statement, Bovino said: “The former Acting US Attorney’s email suggesting that the United States Border Patrol does not ALWAYS abide by the Constitution revealed a bias against law enforcement.”

Beckwith’s impasse with Bovino was rooted in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union after his border agents conducted the unannounced raids in Bakersfield, where they arrested day laborers outside a Home Depot and farmworkers in orchards in January.

A federal judge in April ruled that the Border Patrol could detain people only if it had a reasonable suspicion that they were violating federal immigration law.

“You just can’t walk up to people with brown skin and say, ‘Give me your papers,’” U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Thurston said. She granted an injunction stopping the Border Patrol from detaining people without probable cause while the case proceeds.

Federal Officials Intensified Crackdown in Southern California

But that order did not apply to Southern California, where federal officials intensified their crackdown in June, leading to protests and Trump’s deployment of the National Guard against the wishes of California leaders. A Los Angeles judge in July also placed restrictions on immigration raids in Southern California, but the Supreme Court overruled her decision this month.

“The Supreme Court’s decision is evidence of the fact Border Patrol follows the Constitution and the Fourth Amendment,” Bovino said.

There are 93 U.S. attorneys overseeing federal prosecutions in districts throughout the country. It is common for them, as appointees, to resign after a new president is elected.

It is not common, however, for presidents to demand that prosecutors carry out certain acts as a condition of employment, said Nina Mendelson, a professor of law at the University of Michigan with expertise in administrative law. U.S. attorneys are supposed to be able to operate freely from political pressure.

“We still have a norm of prosecutorial independence and evenhandedness and integrity at the federal level,” she said. “Political pressure to prosecute enemies or shield friends would not typically be considered cause for removal.”

In August, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Eric Grant, who defended the Trump administration against major environmental lawsuits during the president’s first term, as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California. Grant replaced Sanchez, who is now second-in-command in the office, the position that Beckwith once had.

Mendelson said the firing of longtime civil servants without cause, as in the case of Beckwith, is rare. Beckwith said that while the president had the right to remove her as acting U.S. attorney, he should have allowed her to return to prosecutorial work in the Eastern District.

Beckwith has appealed her termination, arguing that she could not be fired without cause and without due process. She is seeking that her removal be expunged from her record, as well as back pay with interest and attorneys’ fees.

Beckwith Motivated By Justice

Beckwith said she was motivated by justice, not politics.

She was raised in Ohio by a father who worked in a fiberglass factory and a mother who stayed home to take care of her and her sister. They did not talk about politics.

She and her husband, also a lawyer, moved to California in 2004 for work and eventually decided to raise their family in Davis, a college town west of Sacramento, where she is a member of the school PTA. Though she is a registered Democrat, she pointed out that she has served Republican and Democratic presidents alike.

“I’m an American who cares about her country,” she said. “I’m a public servant. That is my calling.”

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Heather Knight and Hamed Aleaziz

c. 2025 The New York Times Company

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Attorney General Pam Bondi has appointed Eric Grant as the Interim U.S. Attorney for the region that includes Fresno, Sacramento, and other Central Valley cities.

The Department of Justice said in a new release that the Valley-raised Grant was sworn in Monday morning.

Grant’s title will include the “interim” tag until his nomination is confirmed. He replaces acting U.S. Attorney Kimberly Sanchez, who was appointed to that post on July 16.

Sanchez, a Republican, followed acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith, a Democrat. The Trump administration fired Beckwith.

Beckwith served five months in the post after following Phillip A. Talbert, a Democrat. He resigned two months after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

Sanchez Now First Assistant

Sanchez will now serve as First Assistant in the Sacramento office, the DOJ said.

When this story first published, a DOJ spokesperson said Sanchez returned to her post as chief of the Fresno office. The Fresno position remains vacant.

An acting U.S. Attorney is predetermined by the Vacancies Act, and may serve up to 300 days. At any time, the Attorney General can appoint an interim attorney for up to 120 days without Senate confirmation. If the 120 days expire, the chief district judge may make an appointment until there is a full-time confirmed attorney.

Valley-Raised Grant Is a DOJ Veteran

Grant grew up in Modesto and raised his family in Sacramento County. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics (1986) and a law degree (1990).

He is a veteran of the Department of Justice, having served twice in Washington, D.C. From 1991 to 1993 he was an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel. And during the first Trump administration, he served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in Environment and Natural Resources.

A Federalist Society profile of Grant states:

“On two occasions, he led the teams that ran the gamut from the district court to the Ninth Circuit to the U.S. Supreme Court to obtain extraordinary relief in high-profile cases — involving the Keystone XL Pipeline and ‘kids against climate change.’ ”

‘Honored to Rejoin DOJ’

Said Grant in a news release: “I am honored to rejoin the Department of Justice to lead an excellent team of lawyers and other public servants in our shared mission to enhance public safety and the rule of law in Northern California. I look forward to working with that team and with our federal, state, local, and tribal partners in law enforcement and otherwise to accomplish that mission.”

Grant has decades of experience in private practice in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento. That experience includes arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and other federal and state courts. He served as a law clerk to the late Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and to Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

The Eastern District encompasses 34 counties in the Central Valley and the Sierra, from the Oregon border in the north to the Los Angeles County line in the south. The office has 72 attorneys and 61 non-attorney staff with offices in Sacramento, Fresno, and Bakersfield.

(GV Wire senior reporter David Taub contributed to this story.)