Desiree Leigh Grace (LinkedIN)
By DANA DiFILIPPO
Reprinted with permission of New Jersey Monitor
The lawyer in a federal tug-of-war over who should helm the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey said she’s ready to serve as judges have ordered, deepening the division between the courts and the White House over who will be the Garden State’s next top federal prosecutor.
Desiree Leigh Grace was second-in-command to the acting U.S. attorney — Alina Habba — and a nine-year veteran of the office when a federal panel of judges on Tuesday announced they’d chosen her to replace Habba, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney whose four-month tenure as interim U.S. Attorney has been rocky.
“The District Judges for the District of New Jersey selected me to serve as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. It will forever be the greatest honor that they selected me on merit, and I’m prepared to follow that Order and begin to serve in accordance with the law,” Grace wrote on LinkedIn Wednesday.
Grace’s statement was first reported by the New Jersey Globe.
Trump had nominated Habba for a full term last month. But federal law gives district judges the power to name a U.S. attorney if the Senate does not act on a president’s nominee within 120 days. The Senate has not acted, and Habba’s 120-day term ends Friday.
The White House said Tuesday Trump still wants Habba to remain in the post, and Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche defended her on social media, announcing they had “removed” Grace and complaining that the judges had gone “rogue.”
The administration had not yet commented Thursday morning on Grace’s vow to follow the judges’ order.
Grace noted she has served under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
“I’ve been promoted four times in the last five years by both — including four months ago by this administration. Politics never impacted my work at the Department,” Grace wrote.
New Jersey’s senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, issued statements earlier this week congratulating Grace and condemning the Trump administration for firing her. The two men, both Democrats, have objected to Habba taking the job permanently, accusing her of using the office to pursue “frivolous and politically motivated prosecutions.”
The Department of Justice declined to comment.
