Court: NJ federal prosecutor Alina Habba serving 'unlawfully'

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Dec 1, 2025

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President Trump’s handpicked choice as acting New Jersey federal prosecutor was appointed improperly and is not legally serving in the powerful role, a federal appeals court unanimously ruled Monday.

Alina Habba, who was previously one of Trump’s personal lawyers, may not continue in the post after her interim appointment expired and she failed to win required Senate confirmation for the post, a panel of judges from the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.

“The citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deserve some clarity and stability,” Judge Michael Fisher wrote in a 32-page opinion that upheld a district court’s decision disqualifying Habba. “We will affirm (her) disqualification.”

The Trump administration and Habba can appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. They didn’t immediately comment on the ruling.

Fisher, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, was joined by two colleagues on a three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based appeals court.

It wasn’t immediately clear what might happen to court cases filed by Habba since she has been serving in defiance of federal law that requires Senate confirmation for U.S. attorneys after a short interim period.

All sides agree that Trump has been frustrated by his failure to win Senate approval for his choices as federal prosecutors, several of whom are highly controversial.

Senate tradition dictates that appointees may be blocked by senators from the states in question using a so-called “blue slip” rejection system, effectively forcing presidents to compromise with political rivals when making appointments overseeing states represented by the opposing party, like New Jersey.

Trump has railed against the system and demanded that the Senate eliminate it, but so far he has failed to win support from the body, where Republicans hold a 53-47 edge.

In the meantime, Trump has sought to use various legally dubious procedural moves to install and keep his own choices for prosecutors from blue states in office indefinitely.

Federal prosecutors in Albany, Nevada and California are facing similar lawsuits, the results of which may track that of the Habba case.

Last week, a federal judge dismissed criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after concluding that Lindsey Halligan, the hastily installed prosecutor who filed the charges, was unlawfully appointed.

Shortly after Habba’s appointment, she said in an interview that she hoped to help “turn New Jersey red,” a rare overt political expression from a supposedly nonpartisan prosecutor.

She charged Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., with assault stemming from an oversight visit with other lawmakers to a federal immigration detention center in Newark.

As Habba’s original temporary appointment was expiring, federal judges in New Jersey exercised their power under the law to replace Habba with a career prosecutor who had served as No. 2 in her office. Attorney General Pam Bondi then fired the prosecutor installed by the judges and sought to rename Habba as acting U.S. attorney.

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