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Alina Habba, who represented Donald Trump in both his criminal and civil cases before his second-term election, has been disqualified from serving as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision declaring that the Trump administration’s efforts to keep Habba in the role of U.S. attorney for New Jersey were unlawful. The judges delivered the ruling after hearing oral arguments on Oct. 20, during which Habba appeared in person.
The decision marks a significant setback for the Trump administration, which had been pushing to maintain Habba in the powerful federal post responsible for enforcing both civil and criminal law across New Jersey. It also follows pointed questioning from the judges about why the administration continued treating Habba as acting U.S. attorney after her interim tenure expired — and without Senate confirmation.
After the hearing, Habba wrote on X that she was fighting not only for herself but for other federal prosecutor nominees denied Senate hearings.
She is not the only Trump-era prosecutor facing scrutiny. Just last week, a federal judge dismissed criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that Lindsey Halligan — the prosecutor who brought the charges — had been unlawfully installed as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Justice Department plans to appeal.
The three-judge appeals panel included two Republican appointees, D. Brooks Smith and D. Michael Fisher, along with Democratic appointee Luis Felipe Restrepo.
In August, a lower court judge found that Habba’s appointment involved a “novel series of legal and personnel moves” and concluded she was not lawfully serving as U.S. attorney. The judge also warned that her actions since July could be invalidated but paused enforcement of the order pending appeal.
The government argued that Habba was properly serving under a statute allowing the first assistant U.S. attorney — a position she held — to assume the role. A similar dispute is unfolding in Nevada, where another Trump-appointed U.S. attorney was recently disqualified.
The legal challenges in New Jersey emerged after several federal defendants questioned Habba’s authority to prosecute them once her 120-day interim term expired. They sought to dismiss their charges, arguing she lacked legal standing.
Habba previously served briefly as a White House adviser before Trump appointed her U.S. attorney in March. In an interview shortly afterward, she said she hoped to help “turn New Jersey red” — an unusually political declaration for a federal prosecutor.
During her tenure, she brought a trespassing charge — later dropped — against Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka over his visit to a federal immigration detention center. She also charged Democratic U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver with assault related to the same incident, a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress that did not involve corruption. McIver denies the charges, and the case remains active.
Questions about whether Habba would remain in office intensified in July, as her temporary appointment neared expiration and New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, declined to support her confirmation.
As her term ended, federal judges in New Jersey used their authority to replace Habba with her deputy, a longtime career prosecutor. But Acting Attorney General Bondi reversed that move, firing the replacement and reappointing Habba as acting U.S. attorney. The Justice Department claimed the judges acted prematurely and argued that Trump retained authority to select the state’s top federal prosecutor.
However, the appellate ruling affirmed that presidential appointments are still bound by statutory time limits and checks defined in federal law.
