Alina Habba
Reprinted with permission of New Jersey Monitor
New Jersey’s embattled acting U.S. attorney will stay in the post after some Trump administration maneuvering, capping a tumultuous few days that saw the state’s federal judges rejecting her bid to stay on the job.
Alina Habba, a personal attorney for President Donald Trump who was appointed the state’s chief federal prosecutor in March for a temporary term that expires this week, resigned as U.S. attorney Thursday, was named first assistant U.S. attorney, and because the U.S. attorney post was then vacant, she resumed the office’s top job in an acting role immediately.
“I don’t cower to pressure. I don’t answer to politics,” Habba wrote on social media. “This is a fight for justice. And I’m all in.”
Thursday’s moves ensure Habba will remain the U.S. attorney for the next 210 days, according to the White House.
New Jersey’s two U.S. senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats, said the Trump administration’s push to keep Habba as U.S. attorney undermines the legitimacy of the judiciary and ignores the required advice and consent of Congress.
“The Trump Administration’s relentless attacks on the court are not only disgraceful, they’re knowingly hypocritical,” the two men said in a joint statement.
As Habba’s initial, 120-day term as acting U.S. attorney was coming to a close, the state’s district judges were tasked with choosing whether to keep her on permanently or choose a replacement. Federal law says if the president’s choice for U.S. attorney has no Senate confirmation after 120 days, the judges have the power to fill the vacancy.
Habba campaigned to remain on the job. But on Tuesday, Judge Renée Marie Bumb, chief jurist in the U.S. District Court, announced the judges had chosen Habba’s second-in-command, Desiree Grace. The Trump administration within hours said Grace had been “removed,” though Grace on Wednesday said in a statement she intended to begin her term as U.S. attorney this week.
On Thursday, the White House said it withdrew Habba’s nomination for Senate confirmation as U.S. attorney.
Habba’s term has been controversial, largely because of her stated push to use the office to help Republicans get elected in New Jersey. In May, her office arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat, and charged him with trespassing on the site of a private migrant jail in Newark. Her office dropped that charge days later and then charged a Baraka ally, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-10), with assaulting officers during Baraka’s arrest.
