Appeals court rules Trump’s appointment of Habba as New Jersey U.S. attorney was unlawful
The Trump administration unlawfully circumvented federal law to install controversial MAGA warrior Alina Habba as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor earlier this year, an appellate court ruled Monday.
The unanimous decision, issued by a three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. upheld an August ruling by District Judge Matthew W. Brann that declared the 41-year-old Habba wasn’t statutorily eligible to lead the state’s U.S. attorney’s office.
The appellate court agreed and struck down the government’s defense of the complicated legal maneuvers it employed to keep Habba in her post after her tenure expired in July.
“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,” reads the decision. “Yet the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. attorney’s office deserve some clarity and stability.”
The feds will likely appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. But it’s not clear if the justices will be interested in hearing Habba’s case, which has tested whether the executive branch can ignore long-standing vacancy rules to maintain partisan control over federal law enforcement.
The lengthy fight revolves around the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, which demands Senate confirmation for U.S. attorneys and other senior federal officers.
In the past, Congress has allowed temporary appointments under certain conditions. But Brann, the district judge, noted those exceptions were tightly restricted to halt executive overreach.
Habba, a fanatical Trump loyalist who once served as his personal attorney, managed to overstay her interim appointment as New Jersey’s U.S. attorney thanks to a series of backroom deals and government machinations.
That included yanking her June Senate nomination, changing her job title from “interim” to “acting,” firing the first assistant slated to take over, and immediately placing Habba in that position, which automatically lifted her back into the top spot.
But the controversial moves, which have raised eyebrows among legal experts, left Habba open to legal challenges that tested her authority.
In one instance, two New Jersey men accused of drug and gun crimes, Julien Giraud Jr. and Julien Giraud III, asked Brann to toss their case because Habba had been “illegally appointed.”
Cesar Pina, another defendant accused of wire fraud, money laundering, and bribery, filed a similar motion that was heard alongside the Girauds’ case.
Brann refused to dismiss their indictments but barred Habba from taking part in their prosecutions because she had, in fact, been unlawfully serving in her position, he ruled.
Neither the U.S. attorney’s office nor the Justice Department responded to requests for comment.
Trump installed Habba, who unsuccessfully defended him against sexual abuse allegations in 2023, back in March.
Political sources told The Jersey Vindicator that Habba had worn out her welcome among Trump’s inner circle, and the New Jersey post was meant to keep her away from the president.
But because Trump initially named her the “interim” leader of the 155-prosecutor office, she could hold the spot only 120 days from her appointment.
To stay longer, she had to be confirmed by either the U.S. Senate or New Jersey’s panel of 17 district judges.
Neither of those things happened.
New Jersey’s Democratic senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim blocked her appointment in the upper chamber, hardly a surprise given Habba’s partisan leanings and her lightning-rod comments about trying to “turn New Jersey red,” among other things.
Then the federal judges brushed her aside in favor of her first assistant, Desiree Leigh Grace, who they picked to take over after Habba’s interim appointment ended.
That’s when Attorney General Pam Bondi stepped in and, just before Habba’s term ended in late July, fired Grace and castigated the “politically minded judges” who tried to elevate her.
Trump also pulled 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 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’d just vacated, Brann wrote in court documents.
Appellate court judges L. Felipe Restrepo, D. Brooks Smith and D. Michael Fisher said this circuitous playbook did, indeed, violate the complicated set of rules governing federal appointments.
As first assistant, Habba couldn’t jump into the acting leader position because she hadn’t been the first assistant when the vacancy arose — a necessity under federal law, the court said.
Furthermore, Trump had already nominated her for Senate confirmation, which disqualified her from becoming the acting U.S. attorney. And the exclusivity provision in federal law said Bondi couldn’t simply delegate a U.S. attorney’s powers to Habba.
“Therefore, we will affirm the district court’s disqualification order,” the court said.
The attorneys who challenged Habba’s authority celebrated the decision in a joint statement to CBS News.
“The court’s decision affirms that U.S. Attorney Alina Habba is unlawfully and invalidly serving as the chief federal law enforcement officer in New Jersey, marking the first time an appellate court has ruled that President Trump cannot usurp longstanding statutory and constitutional processes to insert whomever he wants in these positions,” wrote attorneys Abbe Lowell, Gerry Krovatin, and Norm Eisen. “We will continue to challenge President Trump’s unlawful appointments of purported U.S. attorneys wherever appropriate.”
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Steve Janoski is a multi-award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Post, USA Today, the Associated Press, The Bergen Record and the Asbury Park Press. His reporting has exposed corruption, government malfeasance and police misconduct