US President Donald Trump looks on as Alina Habba speaks during a swearing in ceremony as US Attorney General for New Jersey, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 28, 2025.
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images
The U.S. Justice Department accused a panel ofNewJerseyfederal court judges of political motives for declining to permanently appointPresidentDonald Trump‘s former lawyerAlinaHabbaas the state’s top federal prosecutor.
The judges on the U.S. District Court inNewJerseynamed Desiree Grace, the second highest-ranking official in the U.S. attorney’s office, to replaceHabbaon Tuesday. Hours later Attorney General Pam Bondi said Grace also had been removed.
“This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers,” Bondi wrote in a post on X, referring to Trump’s authority under the U.S. Constitution.
Federal law allows district courts to intervene if an interim U.S. attorney has not received Senate approval within 120 days.
Habbahas been serving asNewJersey’s interim U.S. attorney since herappointmentby Trump in March, but was limited by law to 120 days in office unless the court agreed to keep her in place. The U.S. Senate has not yet acted on her formal nomination to the role, submitted by Trump this month.
Habbaand Grace could not be immediately reached for comment.
Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said in a statement on X that the U.S. District Court inNewJerseywas trying to “force”Habbaout of her job before her term expires at 11:59 p.m. on Friday.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District ofNewYork last week declined to keep Trump’s U.S. attorney pick John Sarcone in place after his 120-day term neared expiration.
Sarcone managed to stay in the office after the Justice Department found a workaround by naming him as “special attorney to the attorney general,” according to theNewYork Times.
The Justice Department cannot make a similar arrangement forHabba, however, because federal law prohibits the government from appointing someone to serve in an acting capacity if the individual was already nominated by the president to serve in that role.
Habba’s brief tenure asNewJersey’s interim U.S. attorney included the filing of multiple legal actions against Democratic elected officials.
Her office broughtcriminal chargesagainst Democratic U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver, as she and other members of Congress andNewark’s Democratic mayor, Ras Baraka, tried to visit an immigration detention center.
The scene grew chaotic after immigration agents tried to arrest Baraka for trespassing, and McIver’s elbows appeared to make brief contact with an immigration officer.
Habba’s office charged McIver with two counts of assaulting and impeding a law enforcement officer. McIver haspleaded not guilty.
Habba’s office did notfollowJustice Department rules which require prosecutors to seek permission from the Public Integrity Section before bringing criminal charges against a member of Congress for conduct related to their official duties.
Habba’s office also charged Baraka, but later dropped the case, prompting a federal magistrate judge to criticize her office for its handling of the matter.
Until March,Habbahad never worked as a prosecutor.
She represented Trump in a variety of civil litigation, including a trial in whicha jury found Trump liablefor defaming writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of raping her in the mid-1990s in a department store dressing room.
In 2023, a federal judge in Florida sanctioned Trump andHabbaand ordered them to pay $1 million forfiling a frivolous lawsuitwhich alleged that Hillary Clinton and others conspired to damage Trump’s reputation in the investigation into Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
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