After Court-Ordered Disqualification, Alina Habba To ‘Step Down’ as Acting U.S. Attorney

Alina Habba, a former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, announced Monday that she will step down as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor a week after an appeals court disqualified her from the role.

A panel for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld a lower court ruling finding that Habba was not lawfully appointed as acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey and disqualifying her from exercising the functions of that office.

Habba’s announcement was largely symbolic since she had already been formally disqualified from exercising the functions of her role for around a week. However, she is the first of Trump’s controversial acting U.S. attorneys to step down in the face of legal challenges and court order against their appointment.

Though Habba said she was resigning in “compliance” with court orders, she nonetheless used the occasion to attack the judges who disqualified her, claiming they “became weapons for the politicized left.”

“As a result of the Third Circuit’s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey,” Habba said, misstating her title by omitting “interim” or “acting” before U.S. attorney. 

To become a full U.S. attorney, officials have to be confirmed by the Senate or appointed by federal district judges. In contrast, Habba was simply appointed by Trump in a temporary capacity.

“But do not mistake compliance for surrender,” Habba said. “This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.”

Habba said she would now move to Department of Justice (DOJ) headquarters to serve as Senior Advisor for the Attorney General for U.S. Attorneys.

In a separate statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi called the Third Circuit’s ruling against Habba “flawed” and promised that the department “will seek further review of this decision.”

“We are confident it will be reversed,” Bondi said, adding that Habba “intends to return to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey if this occurs.”

The department, however, is also running out of room to appeal Habba’s disqualification. It can ask the full Third Circuit to hear the panel’s ruling, or it can ask the Supreme Court to step in.

As of Monday afternoon, the DOJ hasn’t done either.

Following Habba’s exit, Bondi claimed three separate officials are now running the criminal, civil and administrative divisions of the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office, including one attorney who has been with the DOJ for less than a year.

Trump and his political appointees in the DOJ have used temporary positions to place and keep loyalists at the helm of key U.S. attorney offices across the country. The appointments are part of Trump’s wider effort to turn the DOJ into his personal law firm and use it to prosecute his enemies.

As acting U.S. attorney, Habba opened investigations into New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and state Attorney General Matt Platkin and brought charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Rep. LaMonica McIver (N.J.) — all Democrats who have opposed Trump’s immigration policies.

Last month, a federal judge dismissed the DOJ’s charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after finding that Trump and Bondi had illegally appointed Lindsey Halligan as acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Since that ruling, the DOJ has continued to claim Halligan is a U.S. attorney — often even dropping “acting” from her title. Halligan herself has continued using the title in new indictments filed after her disqualification.

DOJ leadership appears to believe that because the judge who dismissed the Comey and James cases never explicitly said Halligan was disqualified — just that she was unlawfully appointed — they can keep her in place for the time being.

Several judges in the Eastern District of Virginia, however, have rejected that argument and have struck Halligan’s name from court documents or have added an asterisk leading to the citation for the ruling on her unlawful appointment.

In another bombastic statement Monday, Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche publicly attacked those judges, claiming they are waging a “campaign of bias and hostility” against Halligan.

“We will continue fighting for public safety in courtrooms across the country, and we will not be deterred by rogue judges who fail to live up to their obligations of impartiality because of their own political views,” they claimed.

This story has been updated with additional details throughout.