Democrats tried to get NJ prosecutor Alina Habba out — but Trump threw them a curve ball

President Donald Trump named Alina Habba as the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey on March 24. She was sworn in four days later. The White House announced on July 1 that the president was nominating Habba for a full four-year term.

The prospect of Trump's presidential counselor laying down the law in a state with a Democratic trifecta and triplex enraged Democrats, especially New Jersey Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, who campaigned against her Senate confirmation, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), who wanted Habba gone after her indictment of New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver (D).

It looked like Democrats were going to get their way this week — until the president and his administration threw them a major league curve ball.

How it started

Interim U.S. attorneys are allowed to serve for only 120 days if not confirmed by the Senate or extended indefinitely by the district court for the district concerned. This meant that Habba needed winning votes both in the Senate Judiciary Committee, then on the Senate floor before the expiry of her term on Friday.

Those votes failed to materialize.

On Tuesday, with time yet left on the clock, federal judges in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey — 15 out of the 17 of whom are Obama and Biden appointees — declined to appoint Habba without offering any explanation.

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Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.

A panel of the blue state's judges issued an order — signed by George W. Bush appointee Renée Marie Bumb, the chief judge for the district — appointing one of Habba's subordinates, Desiree Leigh Grace, as the U.S. attorney for the district until the vacancy is filled.

Grace posted a long-winded message on LinkedIn detailing her professional journey to the role, concluding, "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."

Within hours of Grace posting her message, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Tuesday that Habba's replacement had been removed.

'There has been enough noise the past four months.'

"The first assistant United States attorney in New Jersey has just been removed," wrote Bondi. "This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the president's core Article II powers."

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche emphasized that "Alina is President Trump’s choice to lead — and no partisan bench can override that."

Blanche later confirmed that "pursuant to the president’s authority, we have removed that deputy, effective immediately. This backroom vote will not override the authority of the chief executive."

The Trump administration evidently had someone in mind to replace Grace as first assistant U.S. attorney: Alina Habba.

A Justice Department official told Axios that Trump withdrew Habba's nomination to be New Jersey's prosecutor following her reported resignation on Thursday. Bondi then reportedly appointed Habba the first assistant U.S. attorney. Since the top seat was vacant and Habba was next in line, she became acting U.S. attorney.

This play appears to enable Habba to run the New Jersey office for at least the next 210 days.

"Donald J. Trump is the 47th President. Pam Bondi is the Attorney General. And I am now the Acting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey," Habba wrote Thursday evening. "I don't cower to pressure. I don't answer to politics."

Habba added, "This is a fight for justice. And I'm all in."

Habba sent a letter to prosecutors in the New Jersey office roughly a half-hour after making this post, stating, "There has been enough noise the past four months," reported the New York Times.

"Let's keep our focus and get back to the important work ahead for the District of New Jersey," she added, signing the letter as the acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Steve Vladeck, a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center, suggested on the liberal X knockoff Bluesky that "this will be challenged," citing a legal requirement that an individual made acting officer must have served in the position of first assistant to the office of such an officer for more than 90 days.

When pressed for comment about possible challenges to Habba's title change and to Vladeck's critique about its legitimacy, White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement to Blaze News, "President Trump continues to have full confidence in Alina Habba and her commitment to serve the people of New Jersey."

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