Alina Habba ‘unlawfully’ working as US attorney in New Jersey, judge rules – POLITICO
Alina Habba ‘unlawfully’ working as US attorney in New Jersey, judge rules
As a result, Habba cannot participate in prosecutions by the office.
Alina Habba, former lawyer for President Donald Trump, is at the center of battle to lead New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney’s Office. | Mary Altaffer/AP
By Ry Rivard and Matt Friedman08/21/2025 03:37 PM EDTUpdated: 08/21/2025 05:36 PM EDT
A federal judge rejected President Donald Trump’s use of a loophole to keep Alina Habba in place as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor.
In a 77-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann said Thursday that Habba “is not lawfully holding the office of United States Attorney” and has been in the position without legal authority since July 1.
Editor’s Note: The PDF ruling document is embedded at the end of this article.
As a result, Habba, who had previously worked as Trump’s personal attorney, cannot run the office the president attempted to keep her in charge of after her 120-day interim appointment expired. The Trump administration employed a series of maneuvers to try to retain Habba’s control of the office after district judges ousted her in July.
“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,” Brann wrote.
Brann put his ruling on hold, pending the Trump administration’s possible appeal, but the fallout could be a staggering mess across the executive branch. Brann said Habba’s actions in New Jersey for the past seven weeks “may be declared void” and Habba must be disqualified from participating in any of the office’s cases as its leader. The office handles thousands of criminal and civil cases at any given time.
The ruling by Brann — a Republican and Obama appointee who sits in Pennsylvania’s Middle District — could also have wider implications for other U.S. attorney’s offices in Los Angeles, Nevada, New Mexico and upstate New York, where the administration has effectively sidestepped or overridden both the Senate confirmation and judicial appointment processes for selecting U.S. attorneys.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department would “immediately appeal.”
She said on social media Habba “is doing incredible work in New Jersey — and we will protect her position from activist judicial attacks.”
A spokesperson for Habba did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brann’s ruling came in response to legal challenges to Habba’s authority by defense attorneys trying to get charges against their clients thrown out by arguing the Trump administration illegally kept her on and without being confirmed by the Senate.
Those challenges came amid days of confusion over who is leading the office because of complex and contested rules over filling vacancies when there isn’t a Senate-confirmed leader.
The judge declined to throw out the charges against the defendants, Julien Giraud and Cesar Pina, but said anyone who prosecutes them “under the supervision or authority of Ms. Habba” would be subject to disqualification.
Brann’s formal order only applies to the defendants in the case before him, but his opinion is written to broadly apply to everything Habba does.
“I think it would be deeply irresponsible for the department to move forward with Alina Habba as the highest Justice Department official signing indictments or other pleadings,” said James Pearce, an attorney who represents the Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey in the case.
Brann said that allowing stacked interim appointments would effectively void the need for confirmation. “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,” he wrote.
His ruling also has findings that could embolden those who want to check Trump’s moves to strengthen the White House’s grip on government.
“Congress is expected to speak clearly when it rebalances the separation of powers, and courts should be chary of Executive branch interpretations of structural enactments that result in greater arrogation of power to the President,” Brann wrote.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/21/alina-habba-new-jersey-us-attorney-ruling-00518559
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, has started putting his name on some of the New Jersey office’s work in recent days, an unusual move that appears designed to head off challenges to the authority of those prosecutions if they were signed by Habba alone.
Brann’s ruling also has implications for other agencies, said Anne Joseph O’Connell, a Stanford Law School professor who studies the appointments process. She said modern agencies run on the delegation of authority in the face of a broken Senate confirmation process and that some of the particulars in Brann’s ruling would affect other administration officials, like the current head of FEMA.
“If upheld on appeal, this ruling would upend common practice of acting officials under Democratic and Republican Administrations,” Joseph O’Connell said. Editor’s Note: Below is the judge’s opinion in full, courtesy of Politico.
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