Federal judges install Robert Frazer to lead embattled New Jersey prosecutor’s office

Kim and Booker back move while blasting White House’s handling of vacancy

New Jersey’s federal judges have named veteran prosecutor Robert Frazer the state’s next U.S. attorney, capping a turbulent year that saw four different leaders take the helm of the embattled office.

The one-line order, signed by Chief U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb and posted Monday on the court’s website, said the appointment takes effect immediately.

Little public information is available about Frazer, who has “served in the office with distinction for more than two decades,” according to court papers. He most recently worked as senior trial counsel.

The move followed talks between the District Court and the senior leadership at the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, the documents said.

Should Frazer’s appointment hold, he’ll take the reins of an office whose leadership issues over the past 12 months have threatened to endanger numerous criminal prosecutions.

The tangled legal mess began last March when Trump named his former personal attorney, Alina Habba, as the Garden State’s interim U.S. attorney.

Under federal law, she could only serve for 120 days without Senate confirmation or appointment by the state’s district judges, neither of which occurred.

The judges eventually brushed Habba aside in favor of her first assistant.

And that’s when U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stepped in, fired that assistant, and launched a series of intricate legal maneuvers that let Habba keep the job.

But the courts later pushed her out of the role, with Chief Judge Matthew Brann of the Middle District of Pennsylvania ruling that she’d been illegally appointed and could not oversee prosecutions.

An appellate court later upheld Brann’s decision, leading Habba to resign and Bondi to install a three-person leadership team at the office.

But that also withered under the court’s scrutiny, as several criminal defendants challenged the leadership team’s legality.

Earlier this month, Brann ruled Trump had “unlawfully delegated” the powers of U.S. attorney to the three underlings in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The moves, Brann wrote, were a clear attempt by the president to “unilaterally appoint officers of his choosing to staff critical positions exercising vast authority.”

Brann also issued a stark warning that the administration should get its act together, and fast.

“The government is warned that any further attempts to unlawfully fill the office will result in dismissals of pending cases,” he continued.

“If the government chooses to leave the leadership team in place, it does so at its own risk.”

Frazer’s appointment should quell those worries.

In a March 23 letter to Brann, Mark Coyne, chief of the office’s appeals division, wrote that the move “should remove any doubt” as to whether the district’s assistant U.S. attorneys could continue their work.

U.S. Sens. Andy Kim and Cory Booker welcomed the decision in a joint statement, while criticizing the White House’s handling of the vacancy.

“Since the White House’s failure to name a capable U.S. Attorney nominee over 14 months has now had a detrimental impact on cases before our courts, the federal district judges in New Jersey have today exercised their lawful authority to appoint Robert Frazer, a long-time federal prosecutor, to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey,” they said.

Booker and Kim said they remain frustrated that the White House refused to engage in the normal process of consulting with home-state senators on the appointment.

“That process exists for a reason–it ensures that the people chosen to serve as our nation’s top prosecutors have the qualifications, independence, and commitment to justice that the job requires. None of this turmoil was necessary,” they said.

“At every turn, this Administration chose loyalty over legality, and federal judges, appointed by presidents of both parties, rejected those unlawful maneuvers,” they wrote. “The people of New Jersey deserve a U.S. Attorney’s Office focused on keeping them safe, not one mired in constitutional crisis because the Administration refused to follow the rule of law. The Office can now at long last move past the chaos and partisanship of the past year and return to its critical mission: combating violent crime, fighting public corruption, dismantling drug trafficking networks, and protecting the rights of all New Jerseyans.”

Meanwhile, Habba commended Frazer on his new gig in an afternoon social media post.

“New Jersey deserves a great chief federal law enforcement official who is in line with President Trump’s agenda of making this country safe and NJ great!” the controversial MAGA warrior wrote.

“I know Rob well and he will be a great champion of this state and mission of the [Department of Justice].”