A federal judge on Thursday found that acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba’s appointment was “unlawful” and her actions since July as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey may be declared void.
“The Executive branch has perpetuated Alina Habba’s appointment to act as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey through a novel series of legal and personnel moves,” U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann wrote in a 77-page ruling.
“Faced with the question of whether Ms. Habba is lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not,” Brann added.
Because the former Trump lawyer is “not currently qualified to exercise the functions and duties of the office in an acting capacity, she must be disqualified from participating in any ongoing cases,” the judge wrote.
Brann said his order is on hold pending appellate proceedings, meaning it will not take immediate effect to allow the Trump administration time to appeal the decision.
In his ruling, Brann cited numerous issues with how Habba was appointed. She was initially named interim U.S. attorney by President Donald Trump on March 24, replacing another person who’d been named interim U.S. attorney three weeks earlier.
Habba was sworn in on March 28, but interim appointments are capped at 120 days. Trump nominated her to be the permanent U.S. attorney on June 30, but the “Senate did not act,” Brann noted.
On July 22, the judges of the District Court of New Jersey invoked their statutory power to appoint a new U.S. attorney — Habba’s deputy.
“Trump Administration officials were not pleased with that appointment,” Brann noted, and “conceived a multi-step maneuver” to keep Habba on the job.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi fired Habba’s successor and appointed Habba as “Special Attorney to the Attorney General” and then named her to the opened deputy spot, which allowed her to become acting U.S. Attorney.
Brann found the moves were improper, and a way to sidestep the Senate’s role in the process. He also found that Habba hadn’t legally been appointed deputy, and that her appointment as interim U.S. attorney expired earlier than the government maintains it did.
The challenge to Habba’s appointment came from two criminal defendants, and the judge found she was disqualified from having any involvement with their cases.
Abbe Lowell and Gerald Krovatin, the attorneys for one of the men, said in a statement that Habba’s “appointment ignored the rules that give legitimacy to the U.S. Attorney’s office. We appreciate the thoroughness of the court’s opinion, and its decision underscores that this Administration cannot circumvent the congressionally mandated process for confirming U.S. Attorney appointments.”
The Justice Department and New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Brann, a Republican who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, is chief judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and was specially designated to hear the case.
The ruling comes on a day when Habba scored a huge legal victory dating back to her time representing Trump — an appeals court dismissed the New York attorney general’s $500 million fraud judgment against the president.
Habba, who’d been one of the attorneys on the case, posted about the ruling on X earlier in the day, calling the fraud action against him “politically motivated” and “legally baseless.”
“President Trump won — and justice won with him,” she wrote.