Appeals Court: Alina Habba May Not Serve as De Facto U.S. Attorney

A federal appeals court has invalidated the Trump Justice Department’s attempt to install Alina Habba as the de facto United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey (DNJ). The 32-page ruling, issued Monday by a unanimous three-judge panel of the Third Circuit is a sweeping rejection of President Trump’s efforts to circumvent the requirement that district U.S. attorneys be confirmed by the Senate before taking office.

Habba was one of Donald Trump’s private lawyers. She played prominent roles in the civil cases brought against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James and the journalist E. Jean Carroll, and supporting roles on the legal teams that defended Trump in connection with criminal cases brought by the Biden Justice Department and elected Democratic district attorneys in Manhattan and Atlanta. She had never been a prosecutor when Trump, acting through Attorney General Pamela Bondi, named her as the DNJ’s interim U.S. attorney. The president also nominated Habba to be the DNJ’s full-fledged U.S. attorney — i.e., Senate-confirmed and presidentially appointed. Yet, even in a Senate with a six-seat Republican majority, Habba’s nomination got a chilly reception and was never acted on.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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A federal appeals court has invalidated the Trump Justice Department’s attempt to install Alina Habba as the de facto United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey (DNJ). The 32-page ruling, issued Monday by a unanimous three-judge panel of the Third Circuit is a sweeping rejection of President Trump’s efforts to circumvent the requirement that district U.S. attorneys be confirmed by the Senate before taking office.

Habba was one of Donald Trump’s private lawyers. She played prominent roles in the civil cases brought against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James and the journalist E. Jean Carroll, and supporting roles on the legal teams that defended Trump in connection with criminal cases brought by the Biden Justice Department and elected Democratic district attorneys in Manhattan and Atlanta. She had never been a prosecutor when Trump, acting through Attorney General Pamela Bondi, named her as the DNJ’s interim U.S. attorney. The president also nominated Habba to be the DNJ’s full-fledged U.S. attorney — i.e., Senate-confirmed and presidentially appointed. Yet, even in a Senate with a six-seat Republican majority, Habba’s nomination got a chilly reception and was never acted on.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.