This article has been corrected. 3 corrections — see Corrections at the end of this article.

Role: Interim U.S. Attorney, District of Nevada (April 1, 2025 – July 2025); Purported Acting U.S. Attorney, District of Nevada (July 2025 – present, ruled unlawful); First Assistant U.S. Attorney and Special Attorney to the AG (current title)
Status: Still serving in DOJ. Both the district court (September 30, 2025) and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (August 17, 2026) found her Acting U.S. Attorney designation unlawful. The Ninth Circuit stayed enforcement of its ruling on August 21, 2026 while the DOJ prepares a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court; she continues in office pending that review. She was never nominated as permanent U.S. Attorney; the Trump administration instead nominated George Kelesis (February 2026), whose confirmation is pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Prior role: Nevada Republican National Committeewoman; 2022 Republican nominee for Nevada Attorney General (lost); Trump fake-elector defense attorney

Priority: P1

Tracked Activities: Unlawful appointment as Nevada US Attorney (confirmed by both district court and Ninth Circuit); retained RNC committee seat while serving as federal prosecutor; represented fake electors before resigning from that case upon appointment; launched voter fraud probe to benefit Republicans in July 2025 (FBI closed it in late January 2026, finding only ~38 possible non-citizen voters); violated deputy AG recusal order on six cases; made violent, racially charged public statement about Black incumbent AG; disqualified from supervising multiple criminal prosecutions by federal order; Ninth Circuit upheld disqualification August 2026.

Basis for Inclusion Subject classification: Non-Elected Government Official — Interim/Acting U.S. Attorney, District of Nevada, 2025–present Role at time of documented conduct: Interim U.S. Attorney (April–July 2025), then purported Acting U.S. Attorney (July 2025–present) This profile documents conduct in an official government capacity. Both a federal district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have specifically found that Chattah was not lawfully serving and that her involvement in criminal prosecutions would be unlawful. The profile is grounded in Anchor E (use of official non-elected position) combined with those judicial findings of unlawful service. Additional documented conduct — retaining partisan political positions while serving as federal prosecutor, representing fake electors, publicly calling for voter fraud investigations to benefit Republicans, and violating a deputy AG recusal order — provides supporting evidentiary basis. Protected speech note: Chattah’s political statements and campaign commentary are protected speech. Her 2021 statement about AG Ford is documented as inflammatory and racially charged public speech — it is included because it bears on her fitness for the role she was appointed to exercise, not as an independent basis for inclusion. Her conduct as a federal official is the primary basis for this profile.

Background

Personal and Professional History

Sigal Chattah, 50 (as of 2025), is an Israeli-born American attorney based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She came to the United States as a teenager, attending Valley High School and UNLV before obtaining her law degree from Widener University School of Law in Pennsylvania. She was licensed to practice in Nevada in 2002, focusing on domestic and international law. She also taught political science at UNLV for a period.

Chattah was elected Nevada Republican National Committeewoman in January 2023, representing Nevada on the Republican National Committee — a partisan political position she initially retained after her appointment as interim US Attorney.

2022 AG Campaign and Disqualifying Remarks

In 2022, Chattah ran as the Republican nominee for Nevada Attorney General, losing to incumbent Democrat Aaron Ford by 77,179 votes (7.9%).

During the campaign and its aftermath, she made multiple inflammatory public statements:

SourceNevada Appeal, October 11, 2025; Las Vegas Sun, September 3, 2025.SourceNevada Appeal, October 11, 2025; Las Vegas Review-Journal; Las Vegas Sun.“Should be hanging from a f—ing crane” (2021): In a 2021 text exchange, Chattah wrote that Aaron Ford, who is Black, “should be hanging from a f—ing crane.” She later described the comment as “tongue in cheek” and claimed it “did not have a racial context” — a characterization rejected by Nevada’s Democratic senators and more than 100 retired state and federal judges who later wrote to oppose her continued service as US Attorney.

Fake Elector Representation

Before her appointment as interim US Attorney, Chattah served as defense counsel to one of the Nevada fake electors — individuals who in 2020 falsely certified that Trump had won Nevada’s electoral votes when Biden had won the state. Nevada AG Aaron Ford prosecuted six of these fake electors. Chattah represented at least one of them.

SourceReno Gazette-Journal, September 30, 2025.When she was appointed interim US Attorney, she recused herself from the fake elector case — a court filing shows the withdrawal dated April 7, 2025, though the date was crossed out and changed to April 1, 2025 (the day of her appointment).

SourceNevada Independent, 2026; PBS NewsHour, 2026.Update (August 2026): The state-level Nevada fake elector prosecution, separate from any federal track, was dismissed for a second time by Clark County Judge Mary Kay Holthus in August 2026. The judge found the evidence did not support an inference of fraudulent intent. AG Ford announced he will appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court, a process expected to take more than a year.

Documented Actions

1. Retained RNC Committeewoman Position While Serving as Federal Prosecutor

After her appointment as Interim US Attorney on April 1, 2025, Chattah initially retained her position as Nevada Republican National Committeewoman — a partisan political role that Department of Justice employees are required to avoid. This created an obvious conflict between her duty to non-partisan law enforcement and her political role representing Nevada Republicans on the national committee.

SourceLas Vegas Sun, September 3, 2025 (“she kept her position as Nevada’s representative on the Republican National Committee even as she served as interim U.S. attorney… Chattah abandoned the post only after the Nevada Independent reported on the obvious conflict of interest”).She abandoned the RNC post only after the Nevada Independent reported on the conflict of interest.

2. Urged Voter Fraud Investigation to Help Republicans — FBI Closed It Finding Almost No Fraud

A court document filed in April 2025 showed Chattah urging an FBI voter fraud investigation that, in her own words, was intended to benefit Republicans. Specifically:

• Chattah called for the prosecution of the six fake electors charged by AG Ford — individuals she had previously represented — explicitly saying she wants to “exonerate” them
• She urged voter fraud probes connected to the debunked claims the Nevada Republican Party made after the 2020 election (state review found most complaints “inaccurate or suspicious for a variety of reasons”)
• Legal experts said her actions “potentially violate federal government ethics rules because of her prior work as an attorney representing certain Republican clients and as Nevada’s Republican National Committee chairwoman”

SourceReno Gazette-Journal, September 30, 2025.

SourceCBS News, March 12, 2026; 8 News Now (KLAS), March 12, 2026.Outcome (March 2026): Chattah ordered the bureau to open the probe in July 2025; the FBI ended the inquiry in late January 2026 after finding that only approximately 38 non-citizens may have voted in the 2020 Nevada presidential election — out of more than 7 million votes cast in Nevada since 2008. CBS News, which broke the story on March 12, 2026, also reported that Chattah had launched the probe just days after the deputy AG’s office issued a memo ordering her to recuse from six cases involving people with prior political ties to her. The probe was a thumb drive Chattah provided to the FBI that she “claimed would show that non-citizens had voted in the 2020 election and that people on Indian reservations were accepting cash for ballots.”

3. Violated Deputy AG Recusal Order

The deputy AG’s office issued a memo ordering Chattah to recuse herself from six civil and criminal cases — all involving people who had political ties to her before she joined the DOJ. Despite this order, Chattah:

• Pressed ahead with the voter fraud probe (see §2) over which the recusal order applied
• Continued trying to contact DOJ staff who had worked on at least one of the matters from which she was explicitly recused
• Publicly commented on the Blundo case — via her official X account on the same day as the CBS News report — commenting on the case from which she was ordered to recuse. The Blundo case involves Nye County Republican Commissioner Leonardo Blundo, indicted for COVID loan fraud; Blundo had previously praised Chattah’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney in a press release.

SourceCBS News, March 12, 2026.

4. Federal Court Rules She Was Unlawfully Serving — September 30, 2025

On September 30, 2025, U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell (of the Federal District Court in Arizona, assigned to handle the Nevada case) ruled:

“Given the Court’s conclusion that Ms. Chattah is not validly serving as Acting U.S. Attorney, her involvement in these cases would be unlawful.”

What happened: Chattah was appointed interim US Attorney under 28 U.S.C. § 546, which allowed a 120-day term. On July 28, 2025 — two days before that term was set to expire — Chattah resigned as interim US Attorney, writing in her resignation letter that she “look[ed] forward to continuing to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada.” The same day, AG Pam Bondi appointed Chattah as Nevada’s “First Assistant U.S. Attorney” — then simultaneously designated that role as the Acting US Attorney position. This maneuver was identical to the maneuver used for Alina Habba in New Jersey and Bill Essayli in California.

Judge Campbell concluded:

“The procedure used by the government to appoint Ms. Chattah was never intended by Congress.” “The Attorney General cannot designate Ms. Chattah as first assistant and thereby make her Acting U.S. Attorney.”

Chattah was disqualified from supervising multiple prosecutions.

SourcesNevada Appeal, October 11, 2025; Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 7, 2025; Democracy Docket, 2025; The Nevada Independent, 2025.Court record: United States v. Garcia et al., U.S. District Court, District of Nevada, Case No. 2:25-cr-00230-RFB-BNW, Order filed September 30, 2025 (Judge David Campbell). Westlaw citation: 2025 WL 2784640 (D. Nev. Sept. 30, 2025).

Post-ruling: Judge Campbell simultaneously stayed his own ruling pending a DOJ appeal to the Ninth Circuit, citing separation-of-powers deference. This allowed Chattah to remain in de facto control of the office through the appellate process. The DOJ and defendants each filed appeals to the Ninth Circuit; the Ninth Circuit heard oral argument on February 12, 2026, in San Francisco.

5. More Than 100 Retired Judges Opposed Her Continued Service

SourceLas Vegas Sun, September 3, 2025.In the final days before Chattah’s interim appointment was set to expire, more than 100 retired state and federal judges wrote to Nevada’s chief federal district judge to object to her continued service. They specifically cited her history of “racially charged, violence-tinged and inflammatory public statements” as disqualifying her from the position.

SourceNevada Independent, 2025.Nevada Democratic Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto called Chattah an “extremist” and “deeply unfit for the role,” vowing to block her Senate confirmation if sought.

6. Ninth Circuit Unanimously Upholds Disqualification — August 17, 2026

On August 17, 2026, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Campbell’s disqualification order. The ruling delivered a second major judicial defeat to the Trump administration’s unlawful appointment campaign.

Panel: Circuit Judges Sidney R. Thomas and Eric D. Miller, with District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr. (C.D. Cal.) sitting by designation. Opinion by Judge Miller.

Core holding: The FVRA’s automatic-succession provision requires the first assistant to have held that position when the vacancy originally arose. Because Chattah was not first assistant when U.S. Attorney Jason Frierson resigned in January 2025 — the original vacancy — naming her first assistant months later could not trigger FVRA succession. The court further rejected the government’s delegation theory: because the FVRA is the exclusive means for temporarily filling an executive vacancy, the AG cannot route around it by delegating all U.S. Attorney powers under 28 U.S.C. § 515.

The court also dismissed defendants’ cross-appeals challenging the district court’s refusal to dismiss their indictments, ruling it lacked appellate jurisdiction to review that issue — so the underlying prosecutions continue.

The Ninth Circuit noted that Trump had not nominated Chattah as permanent U.S. Attorney; the White House had instead nominated Las Vegas defense attorney George Kelesis on February 11, 2026 — the day before oral argument — though his confirmation remained pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senators Rosen and Cortez Masto called on Chattah to vacate the position. Senator Rosen stated: “Sigal Chattah has always been unfit to serve as Nevada’s U.S. Attorney, and I’m glad to see the Ninth Circuit agree her appointment is illegal. It’s past time for her to vacate the position.”

SourcesThe Hill, August 17, 2026; Time, August 18, 2026; Democracy Docket, August 2026; Nevada Independent, August 17, 2026.Court record: United States v. Jackson, No. 25-6470 (9th Cir. Aug. 17, 2026). https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2026/08/17/25-6470.pdf

7. Ninth Circuit Stays Its Own Ruling Pending SCOTUS Petition — August 21, 2026

On August 21, 2026 — four days after its ruling — the Ninth Circuit agreed to pause enforcement of the disqualification ruling while the DOJ prepares a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court agrees to take the case, the pause continues until the high court issues a final decision.

SourceNevada Independent, “Appeals court finds Sigal Chattah is illegally Nevada’s top federal prosecutor” (editor’s note, August 21, 2026). https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/appeals-court-finds-sigal-chattah-is-illegally-nevadas-top-federal-prosecutorThis means Chattah continues to function in the office — in her current title of First Assistant U.S. Attorney — while the SCOTUS petition is pending. As of the date of this update, the DOJ had not yet confirmed whether a certiorari petition has been filed. The Nevada Independent noted that the Trump administration had not sought Supreme Court review in the analogous cases against Alina Habba (New Jersey) or Bill Essayli (California), where federal courts reached identical findings.

8. Pattern: Part of a Systematic Unlawful Appointment Campaign

Chattah’s case is part of a documented pattern across at least three federal districts in which the Trump administration attempted to extend handpicked loyalists beyond the 120-day FVRA limit:

SourceDemocracy Docket, 2025–2026; United States v. Jackson, No. 25-6470 (9th Cir. 2026).All three used the same maneuver: resign as interim US Attorney, get reappointed as First Assistant, be designated Acting US Attorney — bypassing the 120-day FVRA limit. All three were found to be unlawfully serving by federal courts. Aakash Singh, working in Blanche’s ODAG, was the operational driver of the US attorney alignment effort.

Salience for Patriot University

Chattah’s profile matters for Patriot University because:

1. Election integrity: Her direct connection to Nevada’s fake elector effort — as defense attorney and as someone who sought to use her US Attorney position to exonerate those defendants — is a documented link between DOJ leadership and the 2020 election subversion network. The FBI’s closure of her voter fraud probe, finding only ~38 possible non-citizen voters out of 7 million ballots, illustrates the gap between the administration’s claims and documented reality.

1. Voting rights: Her calls for voter fraud investigations to benefit Republicans, when Nevada’s state review had already found the underlying complaints “inaccurate or suspicious,” represents documented use of federal prosecutorial power against voting rights infrastructure. Her violation of the deputy AG’s recusal order compounds that documented pattern.

1. Appointments Clause accountability: Her unlawful installation — confirmed by both a federal district court and the Ninth Circuit — is a primary case study in the Trump administration’s systematic circumvention of Senate confirmation for US Attorneys. The SCOTUS petition, if filed, will determine whether this constitutional check survives as an operative constraint.

1. Truth and reconciliation: Her background as a fake elector defense attorney installed as the top federal prosecutor in the same state connects her to the documented 2020 election subversion network.

Factual correction requests: If you believe information in this profile is incorrect, please contact factcheck@patriot.university with your name (optional), the specific claim, and any supporting documentation. We review all submissions and correct verified errors promptly.

Investigative trail pointers (public records)

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Sources

1. U.S. District Court, District of Nevada, United States v. Garcia et al., Case No. 2:25-cr-00230-RFB-BNW, Order (Judge David Campbell), September 30, 2025. 2025 WL 2784640 (D. Nev.). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nvd.176045/gov.uscourts.nvd.176045.39.0.pdf

1. U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, United States v. Jackson, No. 25-6470, Opinion (Judge Eric D. Miller), August 17, 2026. https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2026/08/17/25-6470.pdf

1. Nevada Appeal, “Jim Hartman: Sigal Chattah disqualified as Nevada’s U.S. attorney,” October 11, 2025. https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2025/oct/11/jim-hartman-sigal-chattah-disqualified-as-nevadas-us-attorney/

1. Las Vegas Review-Journal, “Nevada US attorney Sigal Chattah disqualified from multiple cases, judge rules,” October 7, 2025. https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/nevada-acting-us-attorney-sigal-chattah-disqualified-from-multiple-cases-judge-rules-3467733/

1. Las Vegas Sun, “President’s pick of Sigal Chattah for Nevada prosecutor a perversion of justice,” September 3, 2025. https://lasvegassun.com/news/2025/sep/03/presidents-pick-for-nevada-prosecutor-a-perversion/

1. Reno Gazette-Journal, “Chattah urged voter fraud probe to help Republicans, document shows,” September 30, 2025. https://eu.rgj.com/story/news/2025/09/30/chattah-urged-voter-fraud-probe-to-help-republicans-document-shows/86438946007/

1. The Nevada Independent, “Lawsuits challenge Sigal Chattah’s position as Nevada’s ‘acting’ US attorney,” 2025. https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/lawsuits-challenge-sigal-chattahs-position-as-nevadas-acting-us-attorney

1. Democracy Docket, “Another Trump-Appointed U.S. Attorney Found to be Serving Unlawfully, Federal Judge Rules,” 2025. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/another-trump-appointed-u-s-attorney-found-to-be-serving-unlawfully-federal-judge-rules/

1. Las Vegas Review-Journal, “Sigal Chattah to be next interim Nevada U.S. attorney,” 2025. https://develop.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/las-vegas-lawyer-rnc-committeewoman-will-be-next-interim-us-attorney-2970767/

1. CBS News, “FBI closes 2020 election fraud inquiry ordered by Nevada’s top federal prosecutor, sources say,” March 12, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-closes-2020-election-fraud-inquiry-ordered-nevadas-top-federal-prosecutor

1. 8 News Now (KLAS), “FBI drops Nevada noncitizen voting investigation, CBS reports,” March 12, 2026. https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/fbi-drops-nevada-noncitizen-voting-investigation-cbs-reports

1. Reno Gazette-Journal, “White House nominates replacement for Nevada US attorney Sigal Chattah,” February 12, 2026. https://www.rgj.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/12/white-house-nominates-replacement-for-nevada-us-attorney-sigal-chattah/88651046007/

1. The Hill, “Appeals court upholds Sigal Chattah’s disqualification as U.S. attorney in Nevada,” August 17, 2026. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/6033984-court-disqualifies-sigal-chattah

1. Time, “Trump-Appointed Prosecutor Sigal Chattah Loses Appeals Court Fight,” August 18, 2026. https://time.com/article/2026/08/18/appeals-court-upholds-sigal-chattah-disqualification-as-nevada-attorney-in-latest-trump-legal-blow

1. Democracy Docket, “Appeals court rules Nevada’s top federal prosecutor was unlawfully appointed,” August 2026. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/appeals-court-sigal-chattah-us-attorneys-office-nevada

1. The Nevada Independent, “Appeals court finds Sigal Chattah is illegally Nevada’s top federal prosecutor,” August 17–21, 2026 (includes editor’s note on August 21 stay). https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/appeals-court-finds-sigal-chattah-is-illegally-nevadas-top-federal-prosecutor

Profile created: May 22, 2026. Last updated: September 8, 2026.

Corrections

Correction [2026-09-10]: Clarified that Chattah ordered the FBI probe to open in July 2025, and corrected the date the FBI closed the inquiry from July 2025 to late January 2026. Source: CBS News, “FBI closes 2020 election fraud inquiry ordered by Nevada’s top federal prosecutor,” March 12, 2026.

Correction [2026-09-08]: The article wrongly stated that Chattah had departed her DOJ post and that her role ended in January 2026, when in fact she remains in office in a different title while the ruling against her acting designation is on appeal. Source: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, August 17, 2026; Ninth Circuit stay order, August 21, 2026.

Correction [2026-09-08]: Clarified that Sigal Chattah’s disqualification is currently stayed pending a Supreme Court petition rather than being a final, enforced ruling.