Sen. Patty Murray moves to block Trump’s pick to be Eastern Washington’s U.S. attorney

The nomination of Pete Serrano to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington is in jeopardy after Sen. Patty Murray vowed to use “every legislative tool” available to her to block his confirmation.

Murray’s options include either declining to return a blue slip for Serrano or returning the form with a negative response – both moves that likely would kill his nomination under a longstanding Senate process that effectively gives home-state senators the ability to veto the nomination of district court judges or U.S. attorneys who would serve in their state.

“Pete Serrano has tried to rewrite the history of the violent January 6th insurrection, thinks the Supreme Court overturning Roe and allowing states to pass criminal abortion bans was ‘the right decision,’ and has fought in court to unleash dangerous assault weapons on our streets,” Murray said Thursday in a statement to The Spokesman-Review. “His extreme right-wing views are far out of step with the people of Washington state, and I will be using every legislative tool I have to block his confirmation.”

Serrano declined to comment Thursday afternoon.

President Donald Trump continues to deride “blue slips” and renewed calls for Republican senators to end the process, an action they have so far declined to take. He suggested he could file a lawsuit to end a century-old Senate practice that has derailed several of his nominees in states represented by Democratic senators.

According to the Congressional Research Service, “blue slips” have been used by the Senate Judiciary Committee since at least 1917 as senators consider appointments to either the judiciary or the U.S. attorney. Under the process, a slip is sent to both senators from the home state of the nominee seeking their assessment.

If the slip is returned to the judiciary committee’s chairman with a positive response from the senator, the nomination moves forward. However, if the slip is returned with a negative response or not returned at all, the nominee’s confirmation process is effectively halted.

Although the process is not codified in law, lawmakers from both parties have generally respected it. According to the Congressional Research Service, only three nominees were confirmed between 1956 and 2016 without the support of both of their state’s senators.

Trump has ramped up pressure on Senate Republicans to end the blue slip process after his former defense attorney, Alina Habba, faced opposition from both of New Jersey’s Democratic senators to serve as U.S. district attorney in the state.

“If you have a president, like a Republican, and you have a Democratic senator, that senator can stop you from appointing a judge or U.S. attorney,” Trump said during a press availability in the Oval Office on Monday. During his remarks, Trump said he would seek to end the process.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, has so far defended the blue slip process and said in a social media post Monday that a “U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip” would not have enough votes to either get voted out of committee or by the full Senate.

Serrano, who unsuccessfully ran for attorney general of Washington in 2024 and previously served as the mayor of Pasco, currently serves as the interim U.S. attorney after being sworn into the office on Aug. 11. Serrano replaced Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Van Marter, who assumed the position July 7 after the resignation of Acting U.S. Attorney Richard Barker.

Serrano previously worked as a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Energy and was selected as mayor in 2024 after having served on the Pasco City Council since 2017. Pasco has a council-city manager form of government, meaning the mayor is selected from the elected members of the council and does not handle day-to-day operations of the city.

As he ran for attorney general as a Republican last year, Serrano described the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol rioters as “political prisoners” who were held on “political charges,” during a debate with Democrat Nick Brown, who eventually won the race.

During his debates with Brown, Serrano, 44, said he would struggle to defend Washington’s abortion shield law.

Serrano served as the director and general counsel of the Silent Majority Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has sued the state of Washington over its COVID-19 vaccine mandates and gun laws.

By law, Serrano can serve in an interim capacity as U.S. Attorney for 120 days before he needs full Senate confirmation. If a nominee is not confirmed in that timeframe, a district court can appoint a temporary replacement to serve.