New Jersey U.S. District Court judges on Tuesday declined to make Alina Habba’s job as the state’s U.S. attorney permanent, instead tapping second-in-command Desiree Grace for the role.
The judges’ panel did not give a reason for bypassing Habba in the order issued Tuesday morning. A district’s federal judges can opt to keep an interim prosecutor in place, extending the person’s stay beyond the allowed 120-day maximum.
Formerly President Trump’s personal lawyer, Habba was White House counsel when he named her as New Jersey’s interim U.S. attorney in March. Trump had officially nominated her for the position but was opposed by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Andy Kim, Democrats who questioned her qualifications and called her prosecutions partisan.
Earlier this month, they issued a joint statement opposing her confirmation, contending that “she has degraded the office and pursued frivolous and politically motivated prosecutions.”
Habba’s 120-day tenure has been controversial, marked by the arrests of two elected Democrats, U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, as they tried to visit an ICE detention center in May. She also established an Election Integrity Task Force to scrutinize voter rolls.
Following her appointment, Habba stated that her goal was to “turn New Jersey red.” One of her first moves was to launch investigations into Dem. Gov. Phil Murphy and State Attorney General Matthew Platkin for forbidding local law enforcement from cooperating with federal agents on immigration raids.
Before the White House, Habba represented Trump in several civil suits and served as a spokesperson last year while he juggled his presidential campaign with court appearances.
During the defamation suit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, Habba misstated the law, bungled procedure and brought up topics that had been declared off-limits. That led Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to chide her for the missteps and for objecting once he had ruled.
The judge panel’s vote rejecting Habba comes days after the Trump administration did an end run around a similar appointment in New York’s Northern District with then-interim U.S. Attorney John Sarcone.
After a panel of judges declined to make him permanent, the Justice Department created a new title, “special attorney to the attorney general” — essentially appointing him as his own assistant, a post not subject to congressional confirmation, thus making him the de facto U.S. attorney for the foreseeable future.
With News Wire Services
