A panel of federal judges decided on Tuesday not to keep Trump pick Alina Habba as New Jersey’s top prosecutor.
The court appointed prosecutor Desiree Leigh Grace to replace Habba as interim U.S. attorney when her 120-day term expires, according to the order by U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey Chief Judge Renée Marie Bumb.
Attorney General Pam Bondi responded by announcing hours after the judges’ decision that the DOJ removed Grace as Habba’s deputy.
“This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers,” she wrote.
Most of the judges in the District of New Jersey are Democrat appointees. Federal law allows district courts to select a U.S. attorney when an interim appointment expires.
President Donald Trump nominated Habba, who served as his attorney, to serve as interim U.S. attorney in March. He nominated her to serve in that position permanently on July 1. The nomination has yet to be heard or confirmed by the Senate.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey did not respond to a request for comment.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche suggested the judges are trying to “force out @USAttyHabba before her term expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday.”
“Their rush reveals what this was always about: a left-wing agenda, not the rule of law,” he wrote on X. When judges act like activists, they undermine confidence in our justice system. Alina is President Trump’s choice to lead—and no partisan bench can override that.”
Bondi previously wrote on X that Habba is “doing outstanding work in New Jersey” that makes the DOJ “proud.”
Blanche earlier said Habba has the “full confidence” of the president and DOJ, writing Sunday on X that she has “brought steady leadership and sound judgment as Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.”
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on judges Friday to reject Habba, highlighting the ongoing case against Democratic New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver for allegedly assaulting federal officers outside an immigration facility.
“The so-called U.S. Attorney in NJ maliciously indicted Congresswoman LaMonica McIver for doing her job,” he wrote on X. “Alina Habba is a woefully unqualified political hack who has to go.”
A panel of federal judges in the Northern District of New York previously rejected another Trump administration interim U.S. attorney pick, John Sarcone, on July 14.
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