Judge says former Trump lawyer Alina Habba has been unlawfully serving
as US attorney in New Jersey
[August 22, 2025]
By MIKE CATALINI
A federal judge ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump’s former
lawyer, Alina Habba, has been unlawfully serving as the the top federal
prosecutor in New Jersey since last month.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann held that Habba’s term as the interim
U.S. attorney ended in July, and the Trump administration’s “novel
series of legal and personnel moves” to keep her in the role without
getting confirmation from the U.S. Senate didn’t follow procedures
required by federal law.
“Faced with the question of whether Ms. Habba is lawfully performing the
functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the
District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not,” wrote Chief U.S.
District Judge Matthew Brann wrote.
The judge said Habba's actions since July “may be declared void," though
he put his order on hold so the Justice Department could appeal.
It wasn’t immediately clear if that meant Habba would remain in charge
of the U.S. attorney’s office temporarily, or who would make key
decisions in the prosecutor's office if she was sidelined. A message
seeking comment was sent to Habba’s office.
In a social media post, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the
administration would appeal, saying Habba was “doing incredible work in
New Jersey — and we will protect her position from activist judicial
attacks.”
If upheld, the ruling could lead to challenges against a handful of
other U.S. attorneys who have been similarly installed by the Trump
administration without Senate approval after their temporary assignments
have expired.
At its core, Brann’s opinion took aim at the administration's strategy
of using a string of temporary appointments to allow Trump's favored
candidates to bypass the usual requirement that U.S. attorneys be
confirmed by the Senate — something that requires a degree of bipartisan
support.
“Taken to the extreme, the President could use this method to staff the
United States Attorney’s office with individuals of his personal choice
for an entire term without seeking the Senate’s advice and consent,”
wrote Brann, a Republican appointed to a federal court in Pennsylvania
by President Barack Obama.
Brann’s decision came after several people charged with federal crimes
in New Jersey challenged the legality of Habba's tenure. They sought to
block the charges against them, arguing Habba didn’t have the authority
to prosecute their cases after her 120-day term as interim U.S. attorney
expired.
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Lawyers for one of those defendants applauded the court's ruling.
“Prosecutors wield enormous power, and with that comes the
responsibility to ensure they are qualified and properly appointed,"
attorneys Abbe D. Lowell and Gerald Krovatin said in statement. "We
challenged the authority of Alina Habba because her appointment
ignored the rules that give legitimacy to the U.S. Attorney’s
office. We appreciate the thoroughness of the court’s opinion, and
its decision underscores that this Administration cannot circumvent
the congressionally mandated process for confirming U.S. Attorney
appointments.”
Habba represented Trump in criminal and civil proceedings before he
was elected to a second term. She briefly served as a White House
adviser before Trump appointed her as a federal prosecutor in March.
Shortly after her appointment, she said in an interview that she
hoped to help “turn New Jersey red,” a rare overt political
expression from a prosecutor, and said she planned to investigate
the state’s Democratic governor and attorney general.
She then brought a trespassing charge, which was eventually dropped,
against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka stemming from his visit to a federal
immigration detention center. Habba later charged Democratic U.S.
Rep. LaMonica McIver with assault stemming from the same incident, a
rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress
other than for corruption. McIver denied the charges and pleaded not
guilty.
Questions about whether Habba would continue in the job arose in
late July when her temporary appointment was coming to a close and
it became clear that New Jersey's two Democratic U.S. senators, Cory
Booker and Andy Kim, would block her nomination.
With her appointment expiring, federal judges in New Jersey
exercised their power under the law to replace Habba with a career
prosecutor who had served as her second in-command.
Bondi then retaliated by firing the prosecutor installed by the
judges and renaming Habba as acting U.S. attorney. The Justice
Department said the judges acted prematurely and said Trump had the
authority to appoint his preferred candidate to enforce federal laws
in the state.
Brann's ruling said the president's appointments are still subject
to the time limits and power-sharing rules laid out in federal law.
___
Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington
contributed to this report.
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