Court deals blow to Trump administration

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Trump administration’s moves to keep the president’s former lawyer, Alina Habba, as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor were illegal and she is disqualified, a federal appeals court said Monday.

A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, sitting in Philadelphia, sided with a lower court judge’s ruling after hearing oral arguments at which Habba herself was present on Oct. 20.

The ruling comes amid pressure from President Donald Trump’s Republican administration to keep Habba as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a powerful position tasked with enforcing federal criminal and civil laws. It also comes after judges questioned the government’s moves to keep Habba in office after his interim appointment expired and without him gaining Senate confirmation.

Habba said after that hearing in a statement sent to X that he was fighting on behalf of other candidates to be federal prosecutors who have been denied the opportunity for a Senate hearing.

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Habba is not the only Trump administration prosecutor whose appointment has been questioned by defense attorneys.

Last week, a federal judge dismissed criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after concluding that the hastily appointed prosecutor who brought the charges, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed to the position of acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Justice Department has said it intends to appeal the rulings.

The judges on the panel were two appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, D. Brooks Smith and D. Michael Fisher, as well as one appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama: Luis Felipe Restrepo.

A lower court judge said in August that Habba’s appointment was made with a “novel series of legal and personnel measures” and that she was not legally serving as a federal prosecutor for New Jersey.

That order said his actions since July could be invalidated, but he stayed the order pending appeal.

The government argued that Habba validly holds the position under a federal statute that allows her to be the first assistant prosecutor, a position to which she was appointed by the Trump administration.

A similar dynamic is playing out in Nevada, where a federal judge disqualified the Trump administration’s pick from being a federal prosecutor there.

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The Habba case comes after several people charged with federal crimes in New Jersey questioned the legality of Habba’s rule. They sought to block the charges, arguing that she did not have the authority to prosecute their cases after her 120-day term as acting U.S. attorney expired.

Habba was Trump’s lawyer in criminal and civil proceedings before he was elected to a second term. She briefly served as a White House adviser before Trump appointed her as federal prosecutor in March.

Shortly after his appointment, he said in an interview with a right-wing influencer that he hoped to help “turn New Jersey red,” a rare overt political expression from a prosecutor.

He then filed a criminal trespassing charge, which was eventually dropped, against Newark’s Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka, stemming from his visit to a federal immigration detention center.

Habba later charged Democratic U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver with assault stemming from the same incident, a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress other than for corruption. McIver denied the charges and pleaded not guilty. The case is pending.

Questions about whether Habba would continue in the role arose in July as his temporary appointment was ending and it became clear that New Jersey’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, would not support his appointment.

Earlier this year, as his appointment was set to expire, federal judges in New Jersey exercised their power under the law to replace Habba with a career prosecutor who had served as his second in command.

Bondi then fired the judges-appointed prosecutor and renamed Habba as acting U.S. attorney. The Justice Department said the judges acted prematurely and that Trump had the authority to appoint his preferred nominee to enforce federal laws in the state.

Brann’s ruling said the president’s appointments are still subject to the time limits and power-sharing rules set out in federal law.