White House names new pick for Nevada top federal prosecutor after confirmation trouble

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Trump administration has selected a new candidate for Nevada's top federal prosecutor after challenges to its first pick's eligibility, marking another setback in the president's efforts to appoint U.S. attorneys who can't win Senate approval.

Last week the White House announced its nomination of George Kelesis, a longtime criminal defense attorney in Nevada. If confirmed, he would replace Sigal Chattah, who was appointed to the position last March and whose eligibility to serve is now under review by an appeals court.

Chattah is one of several Trump nominees for U.S. attorney who was not confirmed and courts have determined cannot legally hold the job. Appointees in New Jersey and Virginia have recently left those jobs over similar eligibility questions, but another in California remains as the office's top prosecutor with a different title.

Chattah declined to comment.

U.S. attorneys, the top federal prosecutors around the country, typically require Senate confirmation but the law does permit the U.S. attorney general to make temporary appointments.

In several cases, Attorney General Pam Bondi has maneuvered to keep appointees who do not have enough bipartisan support to win confirmation to stay in the jobs longer than typically allowed. That has invited court challenges from defendants with cases before federal prosecutors and drawn resistance from judges who say the appointments are unlawful.

A lower-court judge ruled in September that Chattah is not validly serving in the role but allowed her to continue overseeing several cases while the appeal moved ahead. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments last week but has not issued a ruling. After losing similar cases, the decision to tap Kelesis indicates the White House does not expect a ruling in Chattah's favor.

Another recent tussle culminated last month in the Eastern District of Virginia, when a hastily appointed Trump loyalist, Lindsey Halligan, announced her departure from the role as acting U.S. attorney. She had brought prosecutions against two Trump adversaries, former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. In November, a court dismissed those cases and ruled her appointment illegal. The Justice Department has appealed the dismissal of those prosecutions.

The Trump administration lost a similar case in New Jersey after a federal judge ruled Alina Habba, was serving as U.S. attorney longer than allowed. Habba resigned from her post in December after an appeals court upheld the earlier ruling.

Bill Essayli, the Trump-chosen pick for U.S. Attorney in the Central District of California, was also disqualified by a judge from serving as acting U.S. attorney. But he is still the highest-ranking prosecutor in the office under the title First Assistant U.S. Attorney because the administration has not chosen another candidate for the top job. The administration has not signaled it plans to replace him.

Chattah is validly serving as the acting U.S. attorney and can continue while Kelesis goes through the nomination process, argued federal lawyer Tyler Anne Lee in the appeals hearing last week. If Kelesis is not approved or his nomination is withdrawn, Chattah can keep serving for 210 days, Lee argued.

But Kelesis may have an easier chance at Senate confirmation, which typically requires bipartisan support. Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, both Democrats, were staunchly opposed to Chattah's appointment, calling her an extremist. They have not yet expressed such clear opposition to Kelesis. Cortez Masto will conduct a “tough, thorough interview with Kelesis,” her spokesperson Lauren Wodarski said.

Kelesis is registered as a nonpartisan voter and has donated to both Democrats and Republicans over the years. He has practiced law in Las Vegas since 1981, and his expertise is on white collar criminal defense and civil and criminal tax litigation. He serves as chairman of the Nevada Tax Commission and has been an adjunct professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas’ law school.

Like Chattah, he represented one of the Nevada Republicans accused of submitting certificates to Congress falsely declaring Trump the winner of the state’s presidential vote in 2020.

But she is widely viewed as more controversial. She unsuccessfully ran for state attorney general in 2022 and was accused of using racist language about her opponent, Democrat Aaron Ford, who is Black. She has repeatedly echoed Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. She also represented churches that challenged Nevada's COVID-19 restrictions.

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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

FILE - Attorney Sigal Chattah appears in court in Las Vegas on March 4, 2024. (Wade Vandervort/Las Vegas Sun via AP, File)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tony Clark intends to resign as head of the Major League Baseball Players Association, a person familiar with the union’s deliberations said Tuesday.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because his decision, first reported by ESPN, had not been announced.

Clark’s decision took place during an investigation by the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, New York, into OneTeam Partners, a licensing company founded by the union, the NFL Players Association and RedBird Capital Partners in 2019.

“A lot of people have known that the investigation has been going on,” said the New York Mets' Marcus Semien, a member of the union's eight-man executive subcommittee. “I think that this happening during the investigation is not like, as a subcommittee, is not like overly surprising, but it still hurts and it's still something I'm processing.”

The union's executive board met Tuesday and did not make any decisions about a successor, a person familiar with the session told the AP, also on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made.

Deputy executive director Bruce Meyer is set to be the primary negotiator in the upcoming labor talks, as he was in 2021-22. After Clark and Rick Shapiro led the 2016 negotiations, Meyer was hired in August 2018 as senior director of collective bargaining and legal and was promoted to his current role in July 2022.

Semien believes Clark is leaving to deal with the probe.

“I think so," he said, "because up to this point, before any investigations, I’ve had the ultimate confidence in Tony Clark to lead this player group. I've had the ultimate confidence in Bruce Meyer to be the lead negotiator for this player group.”

The decision was made ahead of an expected start of collective bargaining in April for an agreement to replace the five-year labor contract that expires Dec. 1. Management appears on track to propose a salary cap, which possibly could lead to a work stoppage that causes regular-season games to be canceled for the first time since 1995.

Adam L. Braverman, a former U.S. associate deputy attorney general and U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, was hired by the union's executive subcommittee as outside counsel, two people familiar with the group's action told the AP. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the union hadn't announced that.

The union on Monday canceled Tuesday’s scheduled start of the staff’s annual tour of the 30 spring training camps, which was to have begun with the Cleveland Guardians in the morning and the Chicago White Sox in the afternoon.

Clark, 53, is a former All-Star first baseman who became the first player to head the union.

He played from 1995-2009, becoming a union leader shortly after going to his first executive board meeting in 1999.

Clark was hired as the union's director of player relations in 2010 and was promoted to deputy executive director in July 2013, when union head Michael Weiner's health declined because of a brain tumor. Weiner died that November and Clark was elevated to executive director, following Marvin Miller, Kenneth Moffett, Donald Fehr and Wiener as union head.

Clark led players through negotiations that led to an agreement in December 2016, about 3 1/2 hours before the prior deal was set to expire, and another in March 2022 after a 99-day lockout.

Meyer, 64, spent 30 years at Weil, Gotshal & Manges before joining the NHL Players Association in 2016 as senior director of collective bargaining, policy and legal.

Three members of the subcommittee, Jack Flaherty, Lucas Giolito and Ian Happ, were among the players who in March 2024 advocated for the ouster of Meyer in an effort led by former union lawyer Harry Marino. Clark backed Meyer, the effort failed and those three players were dropped off the subcommittee that December.

The subcommittee voted 8-0 against approving the 2022 labor contract and Meyer had advocated pushing management for a deal more favorable to the union. Team player representatives, the overall group supervising negotiations, voted 26-4 in favor, leaving the overall ballot at 26-12 for ratification.

In addition to Semien, the current subcommittee includes Chris Bassitt, Jake Cronenworth, Pete Fairbanks, Cedric Mullins, Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal and Brent Suter.

OneTeam says since its formation that it added, among others, the players' associations of the WNBA, MLS, NWSL and the U.S. women's soccer national team. RedBird sold its stake in 2019 to HPS Investment Partners, Atlantic Park Strategic Capital Fund and Morgan Stanley Tactical Value.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

FILE - Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark answers a question during a news conference in New York on March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)