New Jersey’s embattled federal prosecutor resigns following stinging court decision

Controversial MAGA warrior Alina Habba has stepped down as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor just seven days after an appeals court said the Trump administration unlawfully appointed her to the post earlier this year.

In a Monday social media post, the 41-year-old Habba claimed she made the Garden State safer during her brief tenure — and she attacked New Jersey’s federal judges, some of whom sought to replace her this summer with a now-fired underling.

“While I was focused on delivering real results, judges in my state took advantage of a flawed blue-slip tradition and became weapons for the politicized left,” she wrote. “For months, these judges stopped conducting trials and entering sentences, leaving violent criminals on the streets. They joined New Jersey senators, who care more about fighting President Trump than the well-being of residents which they serve.”

The blue-slip tradition allows home-state senators to approve or block federal judicial nominees, and while it is not legally binding, it has historically influenced confirmations.

“As a result of the 3rd Circuit’s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down,” Habba said. “But do not mistake compliance for surrender. This decision will not weaken the Justice Department, and it will not weaken me.”

Habba’s resignation wraps up a tumultuous year for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, which has been consumed with the legal battle over whether the Trump administration manipulated the law and, through a byzantine backroom process, installed Habba in a job to which she had no claim.

Following her resignation, Sens. Andy Kim and Cory Booker issued a joint statement criticizing Habba’s appointment and urging the administration to nominate a qualified successor.

“Today’s resignation of Alina Habba from her role as U.S. attorney for New Jersey brings to a close a troubling chapter and confirms what we have warned from the start. Habba’s installation through an irregular and unlawful process undermined the credibility of the office and eroded the public’s trust in the state’s chief federal prosecutor,” the senators wrote. “The courts’ rulings only confirmed our longstanding concerns — that this appointment was driven by political loyalty, not qualifications or respect for the rule of law.”

The senators called on the administration to act swiftly and responsibly to appoint a successor in light of the “leadership vacuum.”

“We hope that they will work with us to put forward a qualified nominee — one with deep prosecutorial experience, unquestioned integrity, and a genuine commitment to delivering impartial justice — and to give the Senate a full, fair opportunity to consider that nominee,” they wrote. “New Jersey deserves no less, and we will not compromise on the safety of our communities.”

Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill also weighed in with a written statement that sharply criticized Habba’s conduct and the circumstances surrounding her appointment.

“Alina Habba was completely unqualified to lead the U.S. Attorneys’ Office for the District of New Jersey, where I once served. She explicitly politicized the office, weaponized it against the president’s perceived political opponents, and unlawfully stayed in this role until she was finally removed by the courts,” Sherrill said.

“New Jerseyans deserve a U.S. attorney who is impartial, qualified, experienced, and who puts the safety and security of our residents above all else, especially partisan politics,” Sherrill said. “I look forward to working with the next lawfully appointed U.S. attorney to keep all New Jerseyans safe.”

The lengthy fight about Habba revolved around the appointments clause of the Constitution, which demands Senate confirmation for U.S. attorneys and other senior federal officers.

Trump named Habba, who unsuccessfully defended him against sexual abuse allegations in 2023, as the state’s interim U.S. attorney back in March.

Pam Bondi, who serves as U.S. attorney general in the Trump administration, had been closely involved in the internal maneuvering over Habba’s appointment.

Political sources told The Jersey Vindicator Habba wore out her welcome among Trump’s inner circle, and the New Jersey post was meant to keep her far from the president.

But because Trump made her the interim leader of the 155-prosecutor office, she could hold the spot only about four months before either the U.S. Senate or New Jersey’s panel of 17 district judges had to confirm her.

The Senate bid was likely dead on arrival, as home-state Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim blocked her appointment in the upper chamber.

That was hardly a surprise considering Habba’s extraordinary partisan leanings and her lightning-rod comments about trying to “turn New Jersey red,” among other things.

The federal judges were similarly dismissive, brushing Habba aside in favor of her first assistant, Desiree Leigh Grace, whom they picked to take over after Habba’s interim appointment ended.

That’s when Bondi stepped in and, just before Habba’s term ended in late July, fired Grace and pilloried the “politically minded judges” who tried to elevate her.

Trump also yanked Habba’s Senate nomination and had her resign as interim U.S. attorney so Bondi could proclaim her a “special attorney to the attorney general,” which the administration claimed let her lead the New Jersey office despite never being confirmed.

Then Bondi made Habba the office’s first assistant, which automatically lifted her back into the U.S. attorney spot she had just vacated.

But the controversial moves left Habba’s authority open to challenges by three federal defendants who alleged she had been “illegally appointed” and claimed their charges should be thrown out.

District Judge Matthew Brann refused to dismiss the men’s indictments but barred Habba from running their prosecutions because she had, in fact, been unlawfully serving in her position, he ruled.

The feds appealed, and last week a three-judge panel from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the Trump administration’s circuitous playbook did, indeed, violate the complicated set of rules governing federal appointments.

“It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place,” the court wrote in a 32-page decision.

“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,” the decision read. “Yet the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deserve some clarity and stability.”

Habba’s resignation soon followed.

In her post, Habba claimed she would soon become a senior adviser to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“My fight will now stretch across the country,” she wrote. “Make no mistake, you can take the girl out of New Jersey, but you cannot take New Jersey out of the girl.”

Reporter Krystal Knapp contributed to this story.