Journalism of Courage
A federal appeals court in the US on Monday disqualified President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Alina Habba, from serving as attorney for New Jersey. A three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals determined that Habba was unlawfully appointed as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey and disqualified her from supervising cases.
“It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place,” Judge D. Michael Fisher wrote in the ruling. “Its efforts to elevate its preferred candidate for U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, to the role of Acting U.S. Attorney demonstrate the difficulties it has faced.”
“We will affirm the district court’s disqualification order,” the court said.
Habba, the personal attorney for Trump, had represented him in several high-profile civil cases, including in the civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. She had served as a senior advisor for MAGA, Inc., the pro-Trump super PAC.
In March this year, Habba, who had no prior prosecutorial experience, was appointed the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey. But in August, US District Judge Matthew Brann ruled that the Trump administration violated federal appointments law in naming Habba as acting US Attorney in New Jersey.
US attorneys typically must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but other laws allow for temporary appointments in certain circumstances. Regarding Habba, criminal defendants in two cases challenged a series of maneuvers that the Justice Department used to attempt to keep Habba in her post after judges on New Jersey’s District Court opted not to extend her interim appointment.
That court instead named Habba’s top deputy Desiree Grace, a career federal prosecutor, as her successor, prompting the Justice Department to fire Grace and attempt to reinstall Habba.
Lawyers for the defendants argued that the maneuvers bypassed the Senate confirmation process and would improperly allow a prosecutor to serve indefinitely.
The Justice Department argued that the appointment was lawful and that Attorney General Pam Bondi granted Habba authority to supervise cases under a second title, special attorney.
This is the latest setback the Trump administration and the Justice Department have suffered recently over the appointment of federal prosecutors.
Last week, a federal judge dismissed criminal cases that had been brought against two high-profile Trump adversaries, former FBI Director James Comey and New York state Attorney General Letitia James. The judge found that the Trump-aligned prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, who brought the charges, had been unlawfully appointed as interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Judges have also rejected US attorney appointments in the Central District of California and Nevada in recent months.
