Judges Decline to Keep Alina Habba as New Jersey’s Top Prosecutor, Drawing DOJ Pushback

Alina Habba, who served as President Donald Trump’s defense lawyer, saw her 120-day interim term as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey end on July 22, according to a court filing that was disputed by a top Department of Justice (DOJ) official.

Chief Judge for the District of New Jersey Renee Marie Bumb said in an order that first Assistant U.S. Attorney Desiree Leigh Grace has been named as Habba’s successor. No other details were given.

Habba, 41, could have stayed on in the role if federal judges in the state kept her on. Bumb’s order did not offer an explanation for the decision but said it was effective Tuesday.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a post on X on Tuesday afternoon that Habba’s term is supposed to end on Friday, not Tuesday, and claimed she is being “forced out.”

“The district court judges in [New Jersey] are trying to force out [Habba] before her term expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday,” he wrote in the post. “Their rush reveals what this was always about: a left-wing agenda, not the rule of law.”

The DOJ’s second-in-command then suggested that judges in the state are acting “like activists” and undermining Americans’ “confidence in our justice system,” adding that “Alina is President Trump’s choice to lead—and no partisan bench can override that.”

Her departure came several days after Blanche said in an X post that Habba “has brought steady leadership and sound judgment as Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey” and currently “has the full confidence” of Trump and the Department of Justice.

Democratic members of Congress, including New Jersey Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, had opposed Habba’s confirmation after Trump nominated her to be the permanent U.S. attorney for the state on July 1. They and other Democrats accused Habba of acting in a politicized manner, which she has denied.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York last week declined to keep Trump’s U.S. attorney pick John Sarcone in place after his 120-day term neared expiration.

Habba’s brief tenure as New Jersey’s interim U.S. attorney included the filing of multiple legal actions against Democratic elected officials.

Her office brought criminal charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), after she and other members of Congress and Newark’s Democratic mayor, Ras Baraka, tried to visit an illegal immigrant detention center in Newark. Immigration agents detained Baraka for trespassing, and McIver’s elbows appeared to make brief contact with an immigration officer.

The office charged McIver with two counts of assaulting and impeding a law enforcement officer. McIver has pleaded not guilty.

In social media posts, Habba also highlighted her office’s prosecution of drug traffickers, including 30 members of a fentanyl and crack cocaine ring in Newark.

Before joining the administration, Habba was one of Trump’s most visible defense attorneys and often appeared on cable TV news as a legal spokesperson. She represented Trump in 2024 in the defamation case involving E. Jean Carroll and also served as his counsel in his New York criminal case involving falsified business records.

The Epoch Times contacted the White House for comment on Tuesday.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.