SEATTLE– President Donald Trump fired the new top U.S. attorney in Seattle on Wednesday, less than an hour after the prosecutor was unanimously appointed by the district’s federal judges, highlighting tensions between the courts and the president over positions of power.

Roger Rogoff, a former judge and veteran state and federal prosecutor, was sworn in as a federal prosecutor before 8 a.m. at the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Seattle. In a telephone interview, he said he then went to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and asked to meet with Charles Neil Floyd, whose 120-day interim term in office ended in February.

While waiting in a lobby, Rogoff said, he received an email from the Trump administration informing him that he had been removed. He is consulting with other attorneys about the possibility of filing a lawsuit over his firing, he said.

Presidents typically appoint U.S. attorneys, the top federal prosecutor for each judicial district. The positions require Senate confirmation, except for temporary appointments. When temporary appointments expire before a nominee is confirmed, judges in a judicial district can appoint a U.S. attorney.

But under Trump, the Justice Department has tried to leave unconfirmed prosecutors on their jobs indefinitely, often through novel personnel maneuvers.

“District court judges can appoint a temporary federal prosecutor and the president can fire him,” Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a social media post on Wednesday. He added that the judges who appointed Rogoff “abandoned the traditional consultation process with the administration so that the selected federal prosecutor is qualified to serve in the administration.”

Trump appointed Floyd, who previously served as an immigration judge, as acting federal prosecutor last October, but never forwarded his nomination to the Senate. When Floyd’s term as acting U.S. attorney expired, Trump simply changed his title, a tactic the administration has also tried in other federal judicial districts: He named him first deputy U.S. attorney, leaving the top job empty.

In May, a U.S. appeals court panel expressed skepticism about the legality of the move. The city’s federal judges decided to accept applications for the position and appointed a bipartisan panel to review the applications.

On Wednesday morning, the court, made up of 17 sitting, senior judges appointed by five presidents, issued its unanimous order naming Rogoff as U.S. attorney for Western Washington.

Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, who had opposed Floyd for the U.S. attorney job, criticized Rogoff’s quick firing.

“Throughout his career, he has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to public service and was legally appointed by the federal judges of the Western District of Washington,” the senator said in a written statement. “This administration doesn’t want to deal with advice and consent; it just wants to install cronies to carry out a corrupt political agenda.”

In December, Alina Habba resigned as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor after an appeals court said she had been serving in the role illegally.

Lindsey Halligan, who brought charges against a pair of Trump adversaries, left her position as acting U.S. attorney in Virginia after a judge concluded that her appointment was illegal and that charges she brought against James and former FBI Director James Comey should be dismissed.

The judges appointed James Hundley, who had handled criminal and civil cases for more than 30 years, but the administration fired him. He also fired a court-appointed U.S. attorney in upstate New York.

Rogoff, who spent 20 years as a state prosecutor and six as a federal prosecutor before becoming a state judge, said he knew the administration could fire him immediately. But he said he had no qualms about the potential conflict he was getting into. Being a federal prosecutor is “the best job there is” for a prosecutor, he said.

“I’m very proud of my career,” Rogoff said. “The fact that the judges of this district, most of whom I have spent my career appearing before, trying cases against or working with, believed that I was the right person to do this job is truly humbling and astonishing.”