In Yes Minister, Sir Humphrey Appleby once called responsibility without power the prerogative of the eunuch. Bill Essayli has achieved the opposite: power without responsibility, the prerogative of the Trump era.When a federal judge ruled that Essayli was serving illegally as Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor, you might have expected him to quietly clear out his desk. Instead, he smiled.“We’re actually quite relieved,” he said, as if judicial censure were a commendation.Because in the absurd machinery of Trump’s Department of Justice, losing your title doesn’t mean losing control. Essayli has been told he cannot call himself acting US attorney. But he can keep acting as one. The nameplate goes; the power stays.
A Legal Defeat Disguised as Continuity
The ruling by Judge J. Michael Seabright, a George W. Bush appointee who clearly values nuance over finality, found that Attorney General Pam Bondi had violated appointment law when she extended Essayli’s 120-day interim term. But in the same judgment, he confirmed that Essayli could remain in charge as the office’s “top deputy.”It’s a demotion so delicate it changes nothing. The DOJ gets to keep its man in place, and the courts get to claim they upheld the law. Everyone wins, except perhaps the idea of legality.
The Bureaucratic Miracle of Staying Put
There’s a certain genius to how the Trump administration manages continuity through chaos. Bondi’s tenure has been marked by these constitutional gymnastics, finding new ways to keep loyalists in posts the Senate won’t confirm.The Central District’s judges could technically appoint someone else to lead the office. They haven’t. They probably won’t. Because this is how inertia becomes policy. In the absence of enforcement, illegality simply becomes a management style.Essayli understands that perfectly. “Ultimately, that’s quibbling about a title, not authority,” he said. Which is the whole point of power—it doesn’t need to be called anything to exist.
A California Greek Chorus
Democrats in California are, predictably, outraged. Adam Schiff, who has long served as both Trump’s favourite target and moral counterweight, called Essayli’s continued service illegitimate. State assemblyman Mark González declared that any case involving “illegal ICE raids” should be tossed out.But these protests are largely symbolic. They rage against an architecture that’s built to absorb outrage and outlast it. Essayli’s office keeps humming. The indictments keep coming. And somewhere in Washington, Pam Bondi is smiling at her own administrative alchemy.
The Quiet Lesson
If Yes Minister taught us that bureaucracy survives by deflecting blame, Trump’s Washington has perfected the inverse—wielding power without ever needing to justify it.Bill Essayli isn’t a rogue; he’s a symptom. A product of a government that governs by reinterpretation, not rule. Where judges scold but do not remove, and where authority seeps through the cracks of accountability like water through marble.Sir Humphrey would have admired it. He had once joked that responsibility without power was the prerogative of the eunuch. In 2025, Bill Essayli has demonstrated the opposite: power without responsibility, the prerogative of the loyalist.
