Trump taps his former defense attorney, Alina Habba, to be New Jersey's
top federal prosecutor
[March 25, 2025]
By MIKE CATALINI
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday named his one-time
defense attorney and current White House counselor Alina Habba to be the
top federal prosecutor in New Jersey.
Habba, who turns 41 Tuesday, takes over the interim post from John
Giordano, whom the president said he's naming to be the U.S. ambassador
for the southwestern African country of Namibia.
A partner in a small New Jersey law firm near Trump’s Bedminster golf
course, Habba served as a senior adviser for Trump's political action
committee, defended him in court in several civil lawsuits and acted as
a spokesperson last year as he volleyed between courtrooms and the
campaign trail.
U.S. attorneys often have experience as prosecutors, including at the
state or local level. Many, including the acting U.S. attorneys in
Brooklyn and Manhattan, have worked in the offices they now lead.
Habba said she looked forwards to working with Attorney General Pam
Bondi to pursue the president's agenda of “putting America first,” and
going after the people “we should be going after.” She criticized
Democrats Sen. Cory Booker and Gov. Phil Murphy for their stewardship of
the state.
“If you look at what happened in crime, what’s going on in Newark,
what’s going on in Camden, this has been a neglected state. It is one of
the most populated states for its size and it needs to stop. We’re gonna
do a bang up job,” Habba said Monday.
Spokespeople for Booker and Murphy did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
Camden officials said earlier this year that violent crime rates reached
a 55-year low, crediting the county police department. Officials in
Newark, the state's largest city, said late last year that homicide
rates had fallen but other crime levels had increased in 2024.
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Alina Habba, a former defense lawyer for President Donald Trump who
has been named interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, walks toward
the microphones to speak to members of the media, Monday, March 24,
2025, outside the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn
Martin)
Habba was one of Trump’s most visible defense attorneys, appearing
on cable TV news as his “legal spokesperson.” She represented Trump
in 2024 in the defamation case involving E. Jean Carroll.
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.
Habba and Trump were fined nearly $1 million in 2023 for filing what
a Florida judge called a bogus lawsuit against former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton.
Habba has also represented Siggy Flicker, formerly of “The Real
Housewives of New Jersey,” in 2021 as she sought to restore her
Facebook account, which the reality star claimed had been disabled
after she made a post wishing First Lady Melania Trump a happy
birthday.
Habba was the plaintiff’s attorney in 2021 a defamation lawsuit
against a Portuguese weekly magazine, which was later dismissed.
Giordano was sworn in as New Jersey's interim U.S. attorney earlier
this month. He previously served as a counselor to the assistant
attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division.
Giordano also served as a federal prosecutor in Virginia.
___
Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Will Weissert in
Washington and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this
report.
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