TRENTON, N.J.: The Justice Department fought to keep President Donald Trump\u2019s former lawyer, Alina Habba, in place as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey on Tuesday after a panel of judges refused to extend her tenure and appointed someone else to the job.<\/p>\n
Habba, who had been named the interim US attorney for the state in March, appeared to lose the position earlier Tuesday, when judges in the district declined to keep her in the post while she awaits confirmation by the US Senate.<\/p>\n
Acting under a law that generally limits the terms of interim US attorneys to 120 days, the judges appointed one of Habba\u2019s subordinates, Desiree Leigh Grace, as her successor.<\/p>\n
But just hours later, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she had in turn removed Grace, blaming Habba\u2019s removal on \u201cpolitically minded judges.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges,\u201d Bondi said on social media. The attorney general\u2019s second in command, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, said in a post on social media that he didn\u2019t believe Habba\u2019s 120-day term expired until 11:59 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement that Trump has full confidence in Habba and that the administration would work to get her confirmed by the US Senate, despite opposition from New Jersey\u2019s two senators, both Democrats, who potentially have the power to block her nomination.<\/p>\n
The judicial order appointing Grace, signed by Chief Judge Renee Marie Bumb, didn\u2019t list any reasons for picking her for the position over Habba. Grace\u2019s LinkedIn page shows she\u2019s served as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey for the last nearly nine years.<\/p>\n
Messages seeking comment were left with Habba\u2019s office and the Justice Department.<\/p>\n
Alina Habba\u2019s tenure in New Jersey as top prosecutor<\/p>\n
During her four-month tenure, Habba\u2019s office tangled with two prominent New Jersey Democrats \u2014 Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and US Rep. LaMonica McIver, over their actions during a chaotic visit to a privately operated immigration detention center in the state\u2019s largest city.<\/p>\n
Baraka was arrested on a trespass charge stemming from his attempt to join a congressional visit of the facility. Baraka denied any wrongdoing and Habba eventually dropped that charge. US Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa rebuked Habba\u2019s office over the arrest and short-lived prosecution, calling it a \u201cworrisome misstep.\u201d Baraka is now suing Habba over what he says was a \u201cmalicious prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Habba then brought assault charges against McIver, whose district includes Newark, over physical contact she made with law enforcement officials as Baraka was being arrested.<\/p>\n
The prosecution, which is still pending, is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress for allegations other than fraud or corruption. McIver denies that anything she did amounted to assault.<\/p>\n
Besides the prosecution of McIver, Habba had announced she launched an investigation into New Jersey\u2019s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, and attorney general, Matt Platkin, over the state\u2019s directive barring local law enforcement from cooperating with federal agents conducting immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
In social media posts, Habba highlighted her office\u2019s prosecution of drug traffickers, including against 30 members of a fentanyl and crack cocaine ring in Newark.<\/p>\n
Habba\u2019s nomination has stalled under senatorial courtesy<\/p>\n
Trump, a Republican, formally nominated Habba as his pick for US attorney on July 1, but the state\u2019s two Democratic US senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim signaled their opposition to her appointment. Under a long-standing Senate practice known as senatorial courtesy, a nomination can stall out without backing from home state senators, a phenomenon facing a handful of other Trump picks for US attorney.<\/p>\n
Booker and Kim accused Habba of bringing politically motivated prosecutions.<\/p>\n
What is Habba\u2019s background?<\/p>\n
Once a partner in a small law firm near Trump\u2019s New Jersey golf course, Habba served as a senior adviser for Trump\u2019s political action committee, defended him in court in several lawsuits and acted as a spokesperson last year as he volleyed between courtrooms and the campaign trail.<\/p>\n
US attorneys often have experience as prosecutors, including at the state or local level. Many, including the acting US attorneys in Brooklyn and Manhattan, have worked in the offices they now lead.<\/p>\n
Habba said she wanted to pursue the president\u2019s agenda of \u201cputting America first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Habba was one of Trump\u2019s most visible defense attorneys, appearing on cable TV news as his \u201clegal spokesperson.\u201d She represented Trump in 2024 in the defamation case involving E. Jean Carroll.<\/p>\n
But Habba has had limited federal court experience, practicing mainly in state-level courts. During the Carroll trial, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan chided Habba for botching procedure, misstating the law, asking about off-limits topics and objecting after he ruled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TRENTON, N.J.: The Justice Department fought to keep President Donald Trump\u2019s former lawyer, Alina Habba, in place as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey on Tuesday after a panel of judges refused to extend her tenure and appointed someone else to the job. Habba, who had been named the interim US attorney for the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":84159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84160,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84140\/revisions\/84160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}