New York State Attorney General Letitia James is moving to quash two federal subpoenas, saying U.S. Attorney John Sarcone III lacked the power to issue them since his appointment, she argued, was not legitimate. The latest correspondence by James' team of attorneys that includes the national firm Munger Tolles & Olson, and Capezza Hill of Albany, notes that on Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a precedential opinion that affirmed a district court's ruling that Alina Habba is "unlawfully" acting as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. James' lawyers argue that President Donald Trump's Department of Justice "cannot use delegation powers to install a de facto U.S. Attorney indefinitely." At 11 a.m. Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Lorna Schofield is scheduled to hear arguments on the matter in Albany, limiting the hearing to whether Sarcone was improperly appointed, and if a determination in the affirmative invalidates the subpoenas should be invalidated. However, James' full motion makes other arguments for which the subpoenas should be quashed. Sarcone's subpoena demands all documents and communications related to civil cases pursued by James' office against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association of America. Meanwhile, the federal government is represented by Richard D. Belliss, an assistant U.S. attorney in Sarcone's office, who will argue that the AG's position "is irrelevant and wrong." Belliss makes that argument on the basis that Congress provided three methods for allowing someone to perform the duties of a U.S. attorney temporarily, to ensure the uninterrupted functioning of an office, until a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney takes office. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi named Sarcone to a 120-day interim appointment, effective on March 17. When it expired on July 14, the court's Board of Judges declined to exercise its authority to appoint a U.S. Attorney. At that point, Daniel Hanlon was reassigned the Albany office's deputy U.S. attorney. The following day, Sarcone was appointed special attorney, as well as first assistant, which the government says allows him to serve as acting U.S. attorney under the default provision of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. "It is typically up to the President, or principal officers acting on his behalf, to decide which method is best suited to the circumstances, and those methods generally supplement each other," Belliss wrote. The subpoenas were issued in bad faith, and must be quashed because they unreasonably interfere with New York's sovereignty, James' lawyers say. James alleges the subpoenas a political retribution for her office's prosecution of the Trump Organization, which was found liable for inflating its assets by as much as $2.2 billion a year, and ordered to disgorge more than $350 million in unlawful profits. The state AG also investigated the NRA, resulting in two of its officers being found liable for financial wrongdoing and self dealing, and an order to enact governance reforms. Trump, who at the time of each prosecution was a private citizen between his first and second presidential terms, publicly called for James to be the criminal prosecuted as a result of her actions.