Former Trump lawyer Alina Habba disqualified as New Jersey prosecutor, US appeals court rules

By MIKE CATALINI Associated Press PHILADELPHIA AP President Donald Trump s former personal lawyer Alina Habba whom the administration has maneuvered to keep in place as New Jersey s top federal prosecutor is disqualified from serving in the role an appeal court stated Monday Related Articles Melania Trump reveals White House holiday decorations and her theme Home Is Where the Heart Is Trump says he ll release MRI results but doesn t know what part of his body was scanned President Trump s EPA head slams Massachusetts for sitting on M to replace lead pipes Trump says he plans to pardon former Honduran President Hernandez for drug trafficking sentence Melania Trump launches production company ahead of controversial Amazon doc A panel of judges from the rd U S Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Philadelphia sided with a lower court judge s ruling after hearing oral arguments at which Habba herself was present on Oct It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by chosen of the legal and political obstructions to getting its appointees in place Its efforts to elevate its preferred candidate for U S Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba to the role of Acting U S Attorney demonstrate the difficulties it has faced yet the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U S Attorney s Office deserve selected clarity and stability the court wrote in a -page opinion It concluded We will affirm the District Court s disqualification order The ruling comes amid the push by President Donald Trump s Republican administration to keep Habba as the acting U S attorney for New Jersey a powerful post charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law It also comes after the judges questioned the cabinet s moves to keep Habba in place after her interim appointment expired and without her getting Senate confirmation Habba disclosed after that hearing in a declaration posted to X that she was fighting on behalf of other candidates to be federal prosecutors who have been denied a chance for a Senate hearing Messages were left Monday seeking comment from the U S attorney s office in New Jersey Habba s personal staffer and the Justice Department Habba is hardly the only Trump administration prosecutor whose appointment has been challenged by defense lawyers 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 installed prosecutor who filed the charges Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully appointed to the position of interim U S attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia The Justice Department has revealed 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 named by Democratic President Barack Obama Luis Felipe Restrepo A lower court judge declared in August Habba s appointment was done with a novel series of legal and personnel moves and that she was not lawfully serving as U S attorney for New Jersey That order stated her actions since July could be invalidated but he stayed the order pending appeal The ruling body argued Habba is validly serving in the role under a federal statute allowing the first assistant attorney a post she was appointed to by the Trump administration A similar dynamic is playing out in Nevada where a federal judge disqualified the Trump administration s pick to be U S attorney there The Habba affair comes after several people charged with federal crimes in New Jersey challenged the legality of Habba s tenure They sought to block the charges arguing she didn t have the authority to prosecute their cases after her -day term as interim U S attorney expired Habba was Trump s attorney in criminal and civil proceedings before he was elected to a second term She served as a White House adviser briefly before Trump named her as a federal prosecutor in March Shortly after her appointment she explained in an interview with a right-wing influence that she hoped to help turn New Jersey red a rare overt political expression from a prosecutor She then brought a trespassing charge eventually dropped against Democratic Newark 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 happening a rare federal criminal occurrence against a sitting member of Congress other than for corruption McIver denied the charges and pleaded not guilty The occurrence is pending Questions about whether Habba would continue in the job arose in July when her temporary appointment was ending and it became clear New Jersey s two Democratic U S senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim would not back her appointment Earlier this year as her appointment was expiring federal judges in New Jersey exercised their power under the law to replace Habba with a career prosecutor who had served as her second-in-command Bondi then fired the prosecutor installed by the judges and renamed Habba as acting U S attorney The Justice Department explained the judges acted prematurely and announced Trump had the authority to appoint his preferred candidate to enforce federal laws in the state Brann s ruling commented the president s appointments are still subject to the time limits and power-sharing rules laid out in federal law