President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Alina Habba, resigned Monday as the top federal prosecutor for New Jersey, leaving the job after an appeals court said she had been serving in the post unlawfully.
In a statement posted on social media, Habba assailed the court's ruling as political, but said she was resigning “to protect the stability and integrity” of her office.
“But do not mistake compliance for surrender,” she said, adding that the administration would continue its appeal of the court rulings ousting her from the position. “This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.”
Habba is one of several acting U.S. attorneys around the country to have their appointments by the Trump administration challenged on the basis that they stayed in the temporary jobs longer than the law allows.
She said she would remain with the Justice Department as a senior adviser to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Her former duties will, for now, be split between three Justice Department lawyers.
Habba, 41, was appointed in March to serve a temporary term as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a powerful post charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law.
Once a partner in a small New Jersey law firm, Habba was among Trump’s most visible legal defenders before his return to the White House, representing him in court and frequently appearing on cable TV news on his behalf.
But she had a partisan bent and no experience as a prosecutor. New Jersey’s two Democratic senators indicated they would block her confirmation in the U.S. Senate.
She brought a trespassing charge, eventually dropped, against the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey, stemming from his visit to an immigration detention center. Habba later charged Democratic U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver with assaulting a federal agent during the same incident. McIver says she didn't assault anyone. The case is pending.
Asked about Habba’s resignation on Monday, Trump lashed out at the Senate over its tradition of refusing to act on nominees if they are opposed by the senators representing the state involved.
“It’s a horrible thing. It makes it impossible to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney,” Trump told reporters at the White House. "I guess I just have to keep appointing people for three months and then just appoint another one, another one. It’s a very sad situation. We’re losing a lot of great people.”
When Habba's term expired in July, a panel of federal judges appointed one of her subordinates to the role. But Bondi promptly fired the replacement, blaming Habba’s removal on “politically minded judges.”
A lower-court judge’s finding that Habba was unlawfully serving in the position soon triggered a monthslong legal standoff, prompting confusion and delays within New Jersey’s federal court system.
Then, earlier this month, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia disqualified her from serving in the role, writing in their opinion that “the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deserve some clarity and stability.”
Trump's critics say he has been exploiting legally questionable loopholes to put unqualified loyalists in jobs that require U.S. Senate confirmation.
Bondi said Habba will return as U.S. attorney if the administration's court appeals are successful.
“These judges should not be able to countermand the President’s choice of attorneys entrusted with carrying out the executive branch’s core responsibility of prosecuting crime,” she said.
Besides Habba, several other Trump administration prosecutors have had their appointments as U.S. attorneys challenged including those in eastern Virginia, Nevada, Los Angeles and northern New York.
In Virginia, a judge dismissed criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on the grounds that the interim U.S. attorney who filed the charges, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed.
In September and October, federal judges disqualified the acting U.S. attorneys in Nevada and Southern California, Sigal Chattah and Bill Essayli, saying they had stayed in the temporary jobs longer than allowed by law.
On Thursday, another federal judge heard an argument by New York Attorney General Letitia James that the administration also twisted the law to make John Sarcone the acting U.S. attorney for northern New York.
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