A Trump-appointed prosecutor has been accused of using her role to benefit her personal interests and creating a staff exodus due to her behavior.
Las Vegas prosecutor Sigal Chattah took over the U.S. attorney’s office in Nevada 14 months ago, and her tenure has been surrounded by controversy.
A Trump loyalist, Chattah previously represented Nevada churches that challenged the state’s COVID-19 regulations. The 51-year-old also represented a Nevada Republican in 2023, accused of submitting certificates to Congress falsely declaring Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Chattah has been using her new position to advance personal interests, a new report alleges.
Among the accusations: targeting her political enemies, repeatedly ignoring recusal orders, and forcing her staff to attend a MAGA-aligned address.
She is accused of requesting updates in cases that she had already been barred from due to conflicts of interest, despite warnings after her recusals were signed by the deputy attorney general’s office in Washington, according to Bloomberg Law, citing three people with direct knowledge.
Chattah also spoke to external attorney acquaintances and then personally intervened to seek favorable outcomes for their clients, according to the report.
The investigation found that Chattah also opened a probe aimed at potentially bringing criminal charges against Nevada’s Attorney General, Aaron Ford, a Democrat, according to three people with direct knowledge of the situation.
Chattah ran for state attorney general in 2022 but lost to Ford.
Only 18 days into her role, Chattah promoted an investigation that alleged fiber optic company Uprise misspent federal and state funds over a broadband project in rural Nevada.
Two people briefed on the matter told Bloomberg Law the probe aimed to shame or potentially bring criminal charges against Ford, whose office indicted Uprise CEO Stephen Kromer on state charges last year.
Chattah posted on X in February 2025 that the alleged theft of $9.1 million in taxpayer money was due to Ford’s “abysmal failure” at his job.
During the 2022 attorney general race, Chattah wrote in a leaked text message that Ford, who is Black, “should be hanging from a f---ing crane.” She later falsely claimed at a Trump Ford was a “convicted criminal.”
“It’s charitable to call it chaos,” said Rick Pocker, a previous U.S. attorney for Nevada, said of Chattah’s leadership. “I don’t think she quite understands how you’re not supposed to use that office for personal or political purposes.”
Pocker was one of over two dozen Nevada lawyers and former law enforcement officials interviewed for Bloomberg’s article.
The Daily Beast has contacted reps for Chattah and Ford for comment.
While Chattah was not available to speak to Bloomberg Law, DOJ spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre said in a statement, “The District of Nevada has charged 15 percent more cases than the year prior with 20 percent fewer attorneys and will continue to move full speed ahead to advance President Trump’s agenda in federal court.”
Baldassarre did not answer direct questions put to her by the publication.
The report also claimed that Chattah told staff during her initial meeting at her office that she planned to make Nevada the “sexiest” place in America to prosecute, which some career employees found off-putting.
Chattah’s behavior has also seen an unusually high staff turnover, which she has bragged about online as recently as Monday.
“Lord knows it took me a grueling year to exorcise the District of Nevada. Dead weight be gone,” Chattah said this week on X, stating it was “The best reset the DOJ has seen in decades.”
Former employees estimated one that one-third of the staff of over 100 people have left, while the Reno branch will shortly have no attorneys with its two final members planning their imminent departure, according to three sources.
Chattah also shared a post where Trump reacted to a New York Times analysis that found over 10,000 lawyers had left his administration since his return to office in 2025.
Trump attempted to put a positive spin on the legal talent exiting the government under his watch. In his Truth Social post last Sunday, he claimed that while the Times treats it as “a bad thing,” for him, “actually, it’s very good.”
“The people that are leaving are Radical Left Deep State Lunatics, who are destroying our Country, and Weaponizing Government,” Trump posted. “Many of them didn’t leave, but were fired!”
Chattah recruited Mike Davis, a conservative lawyer, aggressive MAGA influencer, and key legal adviser to Donald Trump, to address her federal prosecutors last month. Two sources said attendance to hear Davis speak was mandatory for all remaining staff.
“I hope that causes controversy and makes heads explode,” Davis told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on his podcast War Room, two days before his talk.
“Oh my god, she’s the best,” Bannon replied. “She’s the warrior queen out in Nevada. Chattah from Nevada!”
Chattah shared a photo with Davis after the talk, thanking him for “imbuing us with your pearls of wisdom.”
Bloomberg Law also witnessed an internal email that encouraged her entire legal staff to attend an event run by the conservative Federalist Society.
“It represents the worst of a small-town politician or mayor,” Michael Green, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas history professor said. “It has to be difficult for people in her office who argue these cases—even if they share her views. If I’m on the other side, I think, ‘Yeah, you’re hurting yourself. Go for it.’”
