Latest news with #Habba
Mint
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Mint
Trump's DOJ Sidesteps Norms to Boost Ally Alina Habba as US Attorney
President Donald Trump's administration sidestepped tradition this week and criticized judges who sought to bypass his ally as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey — a pattern that may repeat itself in other Democratic-leaning states. The actions of the Justice Department to shield interim US Attorney Alina Habba, Trump's former personal attorney, could foreshadow other fights over chief federal prosecutors holding temporary posts in blue states like California, New York and Nevada. Federal judges in New Jersey said Tuesday they would not extend Habba's four-month tenure, the longest she could serve without US Senate confirmation. When the judges bypassed Habba to pick her deputy, Attorney General Pam Bondi then slammed 'politically minded judges' for overstepping their authority. She fired the judges' choice, Desiree Grace, hours later. Habba's term is set to expire at the end of the week, and what happens next is anyone's guess. But Trump and his appointees have routinely assailed judges who resist him in court cases, and they've shown a recent willingness to push the boundaries of statutes on appointment to protect their choices. 'It's a little unclear as to how this will all shake out,' said Jennifer Selin, an associate law professor at Arizona State University who researches US attorney appointments. The law on appointing interim US attorneys wouldn't prevent Trump from naming Habba as the interim again, but it's 'definitely on the fringes of law,' Selin said. Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the US Attorney's Office in New Jersey declined to comment. US attorneys typically serve four-year terms after they are approved by the US Senate, and they leave en masse with the change of a presidential administration. Under Senate custom, if a home-state senator opposes a president's US attorney nominee, the full body won't confirm their appointment. More than 20 states have two Democratic senators but disputes may arise soon in Nevada, Illinois and California, where interim appointments are set to expire soon. Trump has nominated Habba for a four-year term, but she's drawn strong opposition from New Jersey's two Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has also vowed to hold up all Justice Department nominees over Trump receiving a gifted jet from the Qatari government. District judges can appoint a US attorney until a vacancy is filled, but that is prompting pushback from the Trump administration. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accused New Jersey's judges of 'a left-wing agenda, not the rule of law' and acting like partisans and activists. Such a posture is not a long-term recipe for success, said Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University. Every US attorney's office investigates and prosecutes criminal cases and represents the US in civil litigation. Its lawyers appear regularly in court before federal judges. 'An office that relies on the cooperation of judges to do its work usually doesn't get ahead by making war on them,' Richman said. In the Northern District of New York, the Trump administration tested the bounds of its appointment authority this month after federal judges declined to extend the 120-day term of John Sarcone, the chief prosecutor. Bondi appointed Sarcone as 'Special Attorney to the Attorney General' and 'First Assistant US Attorney,' making him the acting leader under the federal law governing vacancies. Sarcone is authorized to conduct the same legal proceedings as US attorneys may conduct, according to records that say his appointment is 'indefinite but may be terminated at any time.' He could serve more than 600 days as an acting official under the vacancy statute, effectively bypassing the Senate, said Selin. Acting officials may serve under the vacancy law for up to 210 days, followed by up to two more 210-day stints if nominations for the seat fail in the Senate. Trump's administration also named two successive interim leaders to serve as US attorney in Washington, DC, tapping Jeanine Pirro for a 120-day term after her predecessor, Ed Martin, lacked the Senate votes to advance. 'The Trump administration has been very strategic in using acting positions to navigate difficulties in the Senate,' Selin said. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
The Hill
6 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
What to know as DOJ battles over Alina Habba's successor in New Jersey
President Trump's war with the judiciary escalated Tuesday with the firing of an attorney named by federal judges to replace Alina Habba, the loyalist he tapped as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor. The judges refused to extend Habba's temporary tenure as U.S. Attorney, instead invoking a seldom used power to appoint their own pick. But Attorney General Pam Bondi quickly intervened, shunning the 'politically minded judges' for dumping Habba and terminating their selected successor. It's a new front in the ongoing tug-of-war between the executive and judicial branches, as the courts push back against the president's most controversial appointments and the Trump administration doubles down. 'This is ultimately a bit of a game of chicken, where I suspect that the administration has the upper hand,' said Jonathan Petkun, a law professor at Duke University who has researched judicial administrative power. Here's what to know. New Jersey US attorney's office thrown in disarray The back-and-forth has muddied the waters regarding the office's leadership. After a private vote Monday, U.S. District Court of New Jersey judges declined to retain Habba as the state's top federal prosecutor as the clock on her interim status runs out. It issued a standing order naming attorney Desiree Leigh Grace to the role — an unusual move. Habba represented Trump in several high-profile civil cases and, most recently, worked in the White House as a counselor to the president. The judges had the authority to keep Habba in her role as U.S. attorney indefinitely, until her Senate confirmation, but they declined to do so. Federal law lets district courts appoint an interim U.S. attorney to fill the role if the roughly 4-month temporary stint ends before the president's choice is confirmed. Hours later, Bondi announced she fired Grace in response, citing the judges' decision. 'This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President's core Article II powers,' Bondi wrote on X. Judges, DOJ test power The Justice Department's willingness to go to bat for individual U.S. Attorneys speaks to Trump's sharp focus on the agency that he once deemed the 'Department of Injustice,' amid two federal criminal cases the government mounted against him. Trump's close control of the agency exceeds the oversight of previous presidencies, including his own first administration. He has packed the government's legal offices with close allies, several of whom have personally represented him. 'We are seeing a president who is applying a lot of loyalty tests,' Petkun said. 'And I think he's discovered that having to seek the advice and consent of the Senate is tiresome.' A similar showdown played out last week in the Northern District of New York, where judges refused to extend the interim term of Trump's pick for chief federal prosecutor there, John Sarcone III. To get around their decision, Sarcone was named both 'special attorney' to Bondi and the district's first assistant, a move that endows him with the same powers as U.S. attorney indefinitely. The move comes straight from the pages of a playbook Trump's administration has drawn from since he returned to the White House, walking right up to the line where the practical effect of the law gets fuzzy. But judges don't typically subvert the president's selections for U.S. attorneys, either. 'There's lots of 'unusual' going on,' said Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor in New Jersey who now works as a white-collar litigator in New York. During Trump's first term, the 120-day clock ran out for his choice for New Jersey's U.S. attorney then, too. But the judges let Craig Carpenito, Trump's nominee, continue in the role. 'What's unusual is that when the 120 days is coming to an end here, instead of the court saying, 'Okay, the person who was appointed as the acting will continue in the job,' the Court has said, 'No, we're appointing somebody else,'' Epner said. The judges' rejection of Habba follows her contentious trial period, in which two Democratic public officials faced criminal charges over an incident at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) faced a trespass charge, which has since been dropped, and Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) faces three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with a federal officer, to which she pleaded not guilty. At the hearing dismissing the charge against Baraka, one judge on the court suggested his arrest amounted to a 'worrisome misstep' by the office. Trump's administration has not been deterred, with officials including Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche expressing full confidence in Habba and a total lack thereof in the court. 'They consider themselves in a battle, if not a war, with the judiciary — which is madness,' University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said. Legal battle looms The face-off sets up a legal battle that could redefine the power the judiciary can exercise over the White House and vice versa. Epner said he does not believe the issue has been litigated before, and while it remains to be seen whether a legal fight will ensue, real questions remain about the Justice Department's ability to remove Grace. 'It's not clear to me that Attorney General Bondi had the authority to fire the person who was appointed by the court,' he said. 'I'm confident that the president could.' The Justice Department's arsenal amounts to the fact that Bondi is the 'boss,' Petkun said. All federal prosecutors ultimately report to her, meaning that if Grace were to assume the role as the judges ruled, her subordinates could face discipline for following Grace's directives. The judges, on the other hand, don't have any mechanism to enforce their order, Tobias said. 'And I'm not sure they're really inclined to even try to do that,' he added. 'You know, lest it really deteriorate.' Whether the power struggle between the two branches is tested could come down to if Grace herself decides to push back. The closest comparison came during Trump's first term, when he sought to fire Geoffrey Berman, who became U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York after the district's judges appointed him to the role following his 120-day interim term. Berman, who was blindsided by then-Attorney General Bill Barr's announcement of his resignation, initially resisted, writing in a statement that he had 'no intention' of quitting. The fight only ended when Berman acquiesced, after Barr agreed to install the lawyer's deputy to the post. Trump has fired other independent agency officials during his second presidency, many of whom challenged their removals in the courts. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court's conservative majority is 'hungry' for cases that 'clamp down' on separation of powers, Petkun said, and the justices have not yet weighed the statute dictating the power for an attorney general versus a court to make such appointments. 'I suspect, honestly, it is largely up to what is in Desiree Leigh Grace's head,' he said. 'Is she going to acquiesce to this?'
Vox
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Vox
The absurd fight over Trump's MAGA prosecutor in New Jersey, explained
is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he focuses on the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and the decline of liberal democracy in the United States. He received a JD from Duke University and is the author of two books on the Supreme Court. Alina Habba delivers remarks before being sworn in as the interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey as U.S. President Donald Trump looks on in the Oval Office at the White House on March 28, 2025. Photo byAbout four months ago, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Alina Habba, one of Trump's personal lawyers, as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey. Habba spent her brief tenure in office bringing dubious prosecutions and investigations against elected Democrats, including a failed prosecution of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and an ongoing case against US Rep. LaMonica McIver. Prior to this appointment, Habba had no experience as a prosecutor. But Habba's appointment expires this week. And the Trump administration's ham-handed response to that expiration has created an awkward situation where it's not entirely clear who, if anyone, is currently the US Attorney in New Jersey. SCOTUS, Explained Get the latest developments on the US Supreme Court from senior correspondent Ian Millhiser. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. By law, Bondi only has the authority to appoint interim US Attorneys for 120 days. There is some dispute over whether this clock ran out on Tuesday or whether Habba remains in office through Friday, but the law is quite clear that Habba ceases to be US Attorney after time runs out. The same law states that once Habba's appointment expires, the federal district court in New Jersey 'may appoint a United States attorney to serve until the vacancy is filled' by a Senate-confirmed nominee (Trump nominated Habba to serve as US Attorney indefinitely, but that nomination is currently stalled due to opposition from both of New Jersey's Democratic senators). On Tuesday, New Jersey's federal judges issued a brief order announcing that Desiree Leigh Grace, a career prosecutor who previously served as Habba's first assistant — the No. 2 lawyer in the US Attorney's office — will replace Habba. Bondi responded with predictably Trumpian bluster, announcing that Grace 'has just been removed' and that DOJ 'does not tolerate rogue judges.' Let's dispel with the fiction that anyone has gone rogue here. While the Constitution requires top federal officials, such as cabinet secretaries, to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, it permits lower-ranking officers such as US Attorneys to be appointed by 'the Courts of Law,' so long as Congress authorizes the courts to do so. Congress did, in fact, give courts the authority to make these appointments once a temporary US Attorney's 120-day tenure expires. So, legally speaking, everything is above board here. That said, federal law also permits the president to remove any sitting US Attorney. So, assuming that Trump actually signed the order removing Grace, she was lawfully removed. Trump cannot appoint a permanent replacement without the Senate's consent, but he can keep removing anyone the district court appoints who is not Alina Habba. The district judges have good reason to prefer a career prosecutor over Habba Habba didn't exactly distinguish herself during her time as Trump's personal lawyer. In 2022, for example, Habba represented Trump in a lawsuit against his 2016 presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, that accused Clinton of 'racketeering' by linking Trump's campaign to Russia. A federal judge eventually determined that Trump 'deliberately misrepresented public documents,' that the suit was 'frivolous,' and that the allegations underlying the suit were 'political grievances masquerading as legal claims.' The judge ordered Habba, along with Trump's other lawyers, to pay monetary sanctions as a penalty. Habba's brief tenure as a federal prosecutor, moreover, was notable largely because of the high number of investigations and prosecutions she initiated against prominent elected Democrats. In May, for example, Mayor Baraka was arrested while protesting an immigrant detention facility. A federal magistrate judge labeled the charges against Baraka a 'worrisome misstep,' and Habba eventually backed down. Baraka is now suing Habba for 'malicious prosecution.' Habba also indicted Rep. McIver, who participated in the same protest. A federal law permits sitting members of Congress to enter federal immigration facilities as part of their oversight responsibilities. Habba, for what it is worth, claims that McIver assaulted law enforcement officers. Additionally, Habba opened a federal investigation into New Jersey's Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, and its Democratic attorney general, Matt Platkin, over a directive preventing state law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. Under the Supreme Court's 'anti-commandeering' doctrine, the federal government may not force states to enforce federal laws. As the Court said in Murphy v. NCAA in 2018, 'conspicuously absent from the list of powers given to Congress is the power to issue direct orders to the governments of the States.' Habba's authoritarian tendencies aside, she also has little professional experience that qualifies her to supervise federal prosecutors. Prior to her interim appointment, she'd never worked as a prosecutor. Nevertheless, during her time as interim US Attorney, Habba led an office with 170 lawyers. Before Trump, the Justice Department tried not to antagonize judges No party appears in federal court more than the United States. In 2021 alone, federal judges sentenced a convicted offender in 57,377 cases. That number doesn't include cases where a defendant was acquitted. It also does not include the many civil lawsuits where the United States is a party. In large part because of this huge caseload, Justice Department lawyers typically speak of federal judges with cautious professionalism. If DOJ antagonizes a particular judge today, that judge may hear hundreds of cases involving the United States before they leave the bench. Some of the biggest losers in this food fight between the Trump administration and the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, in other words, are likely to be the career federal prosecutors who litigate in that court. Judges are likely to view the Justice Department's legal arguments with more skepticism now that the attorney general has frivolously accused them of going 'rogue' and usurping 'the President's core Article II powers.' Meanwhile, the simple fact remains that New Jersey's federal judges do not have confidence in Habba — to such a degree that they effectively chose to remove her from office and replace her with her deputy. So, these judges are also likely to cast a skeptical eye on the Justice Department's arguments if Habba remains as US Attorney.
USA Today
12 hours ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Alina Habba politicized her job as US attorney. Team Trump politicizes her exit.
Alina Habba has no business being a federal prosecutor. That didn't stop the Trump administration from trying to make it happen. President Donald Trump and the crew of cynical sycophants surrounding him can seem pretty unpredictable until you start spotting the patterns. On matters of law and order, expect the inversion of what Trump claims to be true. If he says he's ending the "weaponization" of the Department of Justice, you better believe he'll use that legal power like a blunt instrument to pound away at his perceived enemies, no matter what the law allows, no matter how inept his agents are. That's why the kerfuffle about Trump's pick for U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, feels so predictable. Habba was widely seen as inexperienced when she represented Trump in a 2024 New York defamation case, which he lost. But she played the part of a lawyer in a passable way while lavishing Trump with loyalty on Fox News so, of course, he made her the top prosecutor for the entire state of New Jersey. And, of course, she made a mess of it, politicizing the office from the get-go in a set of fits-and-starts prosecutions against Democrats in the state who are critical of Trump's deport-them-all approach to immigration. But Habba faced two roadblocks that Trump and her DOJ cheerleaders, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, couldn't push her past. Alina Habba was clearly not experienced enough for US attorney job Federal prosecutors are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. And Senate protocol gives the two senators from any state significant yay-or-nay say over those picks. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, the two Democratic senators from New Jersey, jointly announced on July 2 that Habba "in her short tenure as interim U.S. Attorney ... has degraded the office and pursued frivolous and politically motivated prosecutions." So, that was a nay from them. Habba had another chance. The federal judges of the District of New Jersey could have voted to keep her on the job, past the 120-day limit of her interim capacity as U.S. attorney. That deadline expired July 22. But the judges also said nay to Habba. Opinion: Gabbard yells 'Russia hoax' to distract MAGA from Epstein for Trump. It won't last. In an order at the deadline, Chief Judge Renee Marie Bumb named an experienced prosecutor who had been serving as New Jersey's first deputy U.S. attorney, Desiree Leigh Grace, as Habba's replacement, effective the same day. What came next was as predictable as the rest of it. Trump's MAGA administration wasted no time attacking the courts Bondi and Blanche accused the judges of playing politics because they would not rubber-stamp Habba, who was so clearly playing politics with her role. And Bondi removed Grace from the job she had just been given, whining that "rogue judges" had impeded Trump's presidential power. So an experienced prosecutor got bounced from the job that Habba just got bounced from for being inexperienced and using the job like a political activist. Experience is really a red flag to a crew trying to invert the meaning of justice. Grace's removal injected yet more chaos into the office of a federal prosecutor, which had already been a mess under Habba. Booker and Kim, in a joint statement on July 22, pointed to a pattern of Trump's DOJ attacking judges and the rule of law. "The firing of a career public servant, lawfully appointed by the court, is another blatant attempt to intimidate anyone that doesn't agree with them and undermine judicial independence," Booker and Kim said. Opinion: MAGA is coming for Trump over lost Epstein files. Bondi may pay the price. Here's what comes next: Habba will play the victim, with Bondi and Blanche sobbing along. Then Trump will sneer about "activist judges," a favorite villain in the trite emails he sends out all the time, pleading with his supporters to give him money. And then Trump will find another spot for her, probably at the DOJ, definitely not in a post where the Senate has to weigh her qualifications. That part's not too difficult to predict, because we've already seen it. Habba isn't the only Trump loyalist to secure a position in this administration Trump picked Ed Martin, a devoted supporter with scant legal background and zero experience as a prosecutor, to be the interim U.S. attorney for Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, right after the inauguration. Martin got right to work on Trump's inversion of justice, serving as one of the early inquisitors of how federal agents and prosecutors investigated the rioters who invaded and ransacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Trump refused to admit that he had lost the 2020 presidential election. Opinion: Donald Trump's Jan. 6 pardons cast a long shadow over justice six months later Martin's nomination stalled in the Senate in May and, facing the same 120-day deadline problem as Habba, Trump had to hand the gig off instead to one of his most fervent Fox News supporters, Jeanine Pirro. Martin wasn't sent packing. He landed another DOJ gig in the new Weaponization Working Group, which Bondi claims was set up to stop the politicization of the agency. But, remember, inversion is always at play here. So Bondi, with Trump's blessing, is really using the group to weaponize justice as a tool for political power. If Habba travels the same route, and that does seem likely, she'll finally be in a post she's qualified for ‒ using the levers of power at DOJ to punish anyone Trump feels is out of line. See her potential job description this way: Think of what an experienced, professional, principled lawyer would do ‒ and then wait for her to invert that expectation. Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.
Time of India
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Pam Bondi sparks firestorm by firing NJ Judges' pick to replace Trump insider Alina Habba
On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi suddenly fired a federal prosecutor who had been appointed by New Jersey judges to take the place of Trump supporter Alina Habba . This caused a legal and political firestorm. People are angry about the decision, which has raised concerns about the independence of the courts, the influence of political parties, and the future of the state's top federal prosecutor. In a stunning move, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired Desiree Leigh Grace just hours after she was appointed by New Jersey's federal judges to replace interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, a close ally of President Donald Trump. Grace had been named in a formal court order signed by Chief Judge Renée Marie Bumb, but Bondi refused to let her take office. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category PGDM CXO MCA Operations Management Product Management Public Policy others Technology Others Data Analytics MBA Digital Marketing Finance Cybersecurity Management Degree Leadership Data Science Project Management Healthcare Artificial Intelligence healthcare Data Science Design Thinking Skills you'll gain: Financial Analysis & Decision Making Quantitative & Analytical Skills Organizational Management & Leadership Innovation & Entrepreneurship Duration: 24 Months IMI Delhi Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Online) Starts on Sep 1, 2024 Get Details Why did Pam Bondi reject the judges' appointment? by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Spoiled kid took 3 subway seats while his mom ignored it, so a heroic stranger Kingdom Of Men Undo On X, Bondi claimed that Habba, who was once Trump's personal attorney, had been "doing a great job making NJ safe again" but that "politically minded judges refused to allow her to continue in her position." Renee Marie Bumb, the chief judge for the District of New Jersey, signed an order on Tuesday designating Desiree Leigh Grace as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. According to the order, judges decided not to prolong Habba's temporary position, which ends in 120 days. Habba was sworn in on March 28 after Trump appointed her on March 24, as per a report by NBC News. Live Events ALSO READ: iOS 26 Beta 4 is here — AI news, liquid glass glow and more sneak peek features tailor-made for you According to Bondi, however, Grace "has just been removed" and the "Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges, especially when they threaten the President's core Article II powers." Although no precise strategy has been decided upon yet, the goal is to reinstall Habba in the role in some capacity, similar to what the administration did with the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, the source stated. During her time in office, Alina Habba made a lot of appearances in the media and was criticized for her remarks and for charging Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., with a confrontation with police at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Newark in May. McIver later entered a not guilty plea after being charged with three crimes by a federal grand jury. The Senate Judiciary Committee has not yet moved forward with Trump's nomination of Habba to assume the role permanently. How have lawmakers reacted to Bondi's decision? Democratic lawmakers were very upset about the firing, which made the debate over judicial independence and DOJ authority even more heated. Democratic senators Andy Kim and Cory Booker of New Jersey denounced the DOJ's action, saying that dismissing a career public servant is just another obvious attempt to weaken judicial independence and intimidate anyone who disagrees with them. They went on to say that New Jersey people should have a U.S. Attorney who will uphold the law and seek justice without regard to politics or partisanship. "Trump's Department of Justice is once again criticizing a court that acted within its authority, continuing a pattern of publicly undermining judicial decisions and showing disregard for the rule of law and the separation of powers," they wrote. Earlier on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated on X that Habba's term does not end until Friday and that the "rush" to replace her "reveals what this was always about: a left-wing agenda, not the rule of law." The district court judges in NJ are trying to force out @USAttyHabba before her term expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday. Their rush reveals what this was always about: a left-wing agenda, not the rule of law. When judges act like activists, they undermine confidence in our justice… — Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) July 22, 2025 On Monday, Blanche stated on X that Habba "has the full confidence of DOJ leadership because she's doing the job, aggressively, independently, and by the book"; he added that "district judges should not be swayed by political noise," and he urged them to "keep her in place." FAQs Who did Pam Bondi fire in New Jersey? Pam Bondi removed Desiree Leigh Grace, the judges' choice to succeed Alina Habba as US Attorney. Why did the firing cause backlash? Critics argue that the firing undermines judicial independence and politicizes the Justice Department.
