Federal judge rules Trump administration’s New Jersey U.S. attorney leadership structure is unlawful

Decision warns pending cases could be dismissed if three-person leadership remains in place

The Trump administration’s decision to install a three-headed leadership team at the New Jersey U.S. attorney’s office breaks federal law and could lead to the dismissal of an untold number of pending cases, a federal judge has ruled.

In his March 9 decision, Chief Judge Matthew Brann of the Middle District of Pennsylvania wrote the administration “unlawfully delegated” the powers of U.S. attorney to a triumvirate of underlings in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The moves, which Attorney General Pam Bondi set in motion after interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba resigned in December, were clearly an attempt by the president to “unilaterally appoint officers of his choosing to staff critical positions exercising vast authority,” Brann wrote.

“I conclude that the current leadership structure … exceeds the attorney general’s statutory authority to appoint inferior officers and delegate them powers,” Brann wrote. “This finding requires disqualification of the attorney general’s appointees.”

“Furthermore, 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 triumvirate in place, it does so at its own risk.”

Brann’s bombshell decision again upends the office’s already fragile hierarchy, which was cast into chaos last year after he similarly disqualified Habba from running prosecutions because, he said, Trump had illegally installed her.

The feds appealed the ruling, but a three-judge panel agreed in December that the Trump administration’s circuitous playbook did, indeed, violate the complicated set of rules governing federal appointments.

She resigned a week later, and Bondi designed a peculiar arrangement that put senior counsel Philip Lamparello, special attorney Jordan Fox, and Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Ari Fontecchio in charge of the office’s various divisions.

The attorneys for several criminal defendants quickly challenged the odd structure as unconstitutional — and Brann agreed, noting in his decision that the government had several legal ways to fill the post, but had chosen none of them.   

“Why does the fate of thousands of criminal prosecutions in this district potentially rest on the legitimacy of an unprecedented and byzantine leadership structure?” asked Brann, a conservative Republican appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2012. “The government tells us: the president doesn’t like that he cannot simply appoint whomever he wants.”

The tangled legal mess is another chapter in the office’s wild ride, which began last March when Trump first named Habba as the state’s interim U.S. attorney.

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

Home-state Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim quickly blocked her appointment in Congress’s upper chamber. And the state’s cadre of federal judges brushed Habba aside in favor of her first assistant.

That’s when Bondi stepped in, fired the assistant, castigated the “politically minded judges” who tried to elevate her, and engaged in a series of intricate legal maneuvers that let Habba keep the job. 

But it didn’t last, and the appellate court decision cemented Habba’s fate. Bondi installed the three-headed monster in her stead.

On Monday, Habba had some choice words for the judge who tossed her from her job.

“Another ridiculous ruling from Judge Brann disqualifying three individuals serving New Jersey’s DOJ front office of the U.S. Attorney,” she wrote in a post on X. “Judges may continue to try and stop President Trump from carrying out what the American people voted for, but we will not be deterred.”

“The unconstitutionality of this complete overreach into the Executive Branch, time and time again, will not succeed,” she continued. “They would rather have no U.S. Attorney than safety for the people of NJ. Judges do not fire DOJ officials, AG Pam Bondi and POTUS do — get in line.”