A federal judge has ruled that Alina Habba, a close ally and former lawyer to Donald Trump, has been unlawfully serving as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey.
In a scathing opinion issued Thursday, Chief U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann said Habba’s legal authority to act as U.S. Attorney ended in July—and the Trump administration broke the law to keep her in power.
“Faced with the question of whether Ms. Habba is lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not,” Brann wrote.
The ruling is a major blow to Trump’s efforts to install loyalists in key law enforcement roles without Senate confirmation. The judge found the administration used “a novel series of legal and personnel moves” to get around federal law and keep Habba in office.
Brann said any actions Habba has taken since July “may be declared void.” The decision throws Habba’s entire tenure—and the prosecutions she launched—into legal jeopardy.
The challenge came from criminal defendants in New Jersey who argued that Habba had no legal authority to prosecute them after her 120-day temporary appointment expired. They demanded their charges be thrown out.
Habba was first installed in March, drawing immediate controversy. She told reporters the state could “turn red” and said she planned to go after the Democratic governor and attorney general. Such political comments are virtually unheard of from federal prosecutors.
She later charged Newark Mayor Ras Baraka with trespassing during a visit to an immigration detention center. That charge was dropped. But she followed up with a rare federal assault charge against sitting Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, who pleaded not guilty.
Habba’s short and combative time in office began to unravel in July. When her interim term expired, she failed to gain support from New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim. Without their backing, her formal nomination to the job was doomed under the Senate’s traditional rules.
Trump withdrew her nomination. But Attorney General Pam Bondi then stepped in and removed the acting replacement selected by local judges—immediately reappointing Habba as acting U.S. attorney. That move triggered the legal battle that led to Brann’s ruling.
The judge called out the administration’s scheme to bypass Senate confirmation entirely.
“Taken to the extreme,” Brann warned, “the President could use this method to staff the United States Attorney’s office with individuals of his personal choice for an entire term without seeking the Senate’s advice and consent.”
The Justice Department plans to appeal, arguing that Trump had the right to choose his prosecutors and that judges acted too quickly in replacing Habba.
But the ruling opens the door for challenges against other Trump appointees who were kept in power the same way—long after their legal authority expired.
