President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, Alina Habba, resigned Monday as the top federal prosecutor for New Jersey, leaving the job after an appeals court said she had been serving in the post unlawfully.
In a statement posted on social media, Habba assailed the court's ruling as political, but said she was resigning “to protect the stability and integrity” of her office.
“But do not mistake compliance for surrender,” she said, adding that the administration would continue its appeal of the court rulings ousting her from the position. “This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.”
Habba said she would remain with the Justice Department as a senior adviser to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Her former duties will, for now, be split between three lawyers in the office.
Habba, 41, was appointed in March to serve a temporary term as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a powerful post charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law.
Once a partner in a small New Jersey law firm, Habba was among Trump’s most visible legal defenders during the four years he was out of power, representing him in court and frequently appearing on cable TV news as his “legal spokesperson.”
But she had limited federal court experience and no experience as a prosecutor, and New Jersey’s two Democratic senators indicated they would block her confirmation in the U.S. Senate.
When her term expired in July, a panel of federal judges appointed one of her subordinates to the role instead. But Bondi promptly fired the replacement, blaming Habba's removal on "politically minded judges."
A lower-court judge’s finding that Habba was unlawfully serving in the position soon triggered a monthslong legal standoff, prompting confusion and delays within New Jersey’s federal court system.
Then, earlier this month, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia disqualified her from serving in the role, writing in their opinion that "the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney's Office deserve some clarity and stability."
Trump's critics say he has been exploiting legally questionable loopholes to put unqualified loyalists in jobs that require U.S. Senate confirmation.
Bondi said the department will continue to fight to reverse the courts’ ruling on Habba, and she will return as U.S. attorney if those appeals are successful. But the attorney general said the ruling “has made it untenable” for Habba to remain "with politicized judges pausing trials designed to bring violent criminals to justice.”
“These judges should not be able to countermand the President’s choice of attorneys entrusted with carrying out the executive branch’s core responsibility of prosecuting crime,” Bondi said.
Habba is one of several Trump administration prosecutors whose appointments have faced challenges.
The Justice Department had vowed to appeal a judge's ruling dismissing the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on the grounds that the prosecutor who filed the charges, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
It’s unclear whether the administration’s decision to abandon the fight to keep Habba in office may impact other U.S. attorneys whose appointments have been challenged by defense lawyers.
In a statement posted on X on Monday, Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accused judges of engaging in an “unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility” against Halligan for questioning why she was still being identified as U.S. attorney on court documents.
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