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President Donald Trump is pulling out all the stops to keep his loyal allies in top prosecutor roles in blue states, including his former personal attorney Alina Habba in New Jersey, where a court battle now casts doubt over who is running the U.S. attorney’s office.
Trump has attempted to circumvent the Senate confirmation process to maintain Habba’s authority, as well as the authority of his appointees in California and New York. Habba’s appointment, however, has been complicated by a legal challenge from a criminal defendant in her district.
Habba said in a statement to Fox News Digital she is unfazed by the development.
“I am confident we will win any and all attempts to thwart the well-established Article II Powers of the Executive Branch and the President of the United States,” Habba said.
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Habba’s appointment appeared set to end last week when federal judges in New Jersey voted to replace her instead of extending her temporary term under federal vacancy laws. The judges picked veteran prosecutor Desiree Leigh Grace to succeed Habba, who lacks a prosecutorial background.
But the Trump administration attempted to outmaneuver the judges by firing Grace and switching Habba from interim to “acting” U.S. attorney. The move has caused confusion about who is leading the office, according to the attorney of criminal defendant Julien Giraud.
Giraud is facing run-of-the-mill drug and gun charges in Habba’s district, but his attorney, Thomas Mirigliano, said Habba’s “irregular” designation and re-designation as U.S. attorney is unlawful and grounds for dismissing his client’s case.
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“Facing an imminent criminal trial proceeding under questionable legal authority, Giraud Jr., hereby seeks dismissal of the indictment or, alternatively, injunctive relief barring Ms. Habba, or any Assistant United States Attorney acting under her purported authority, from exercising further prosecutorial powers in this matter,” Mirigliano wrote in court papers.
Court proceedings across the District of New Jersey were also brought to a standstill because of the lingering questions about Habba’s authority, the New York Times reported Monday.
A federal judge in Pennsylvania is overseeing Giraud’s new motion because of the New Jersey federal court’s conflict of interest in the matter.
To appoint Habba as acting U.S. attorney, Trump also had to withdraw her nomination as permanent U.S. attorney. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, New Jersey’s Democratic senators, had blocked her path to confirmation through the Senate’s blue slip tradition. Booker said in a statement that he too thought Habba had unlawfully reassumed the role as top prosecutor in his state.
“This Administration may not like the law, but they are not above it,” Booker said.
Similar situations cropped up in New York and California but have not invited the same level of scrutiny as Habba’s has at this stage.
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Bill Essayli, the temporary U.S. attorney in the Central District of California, was transitioned Tuesday from interim to acting U.S. attorney at the end of his 120-day tenure. Essayli is a Trump-aligned prosecutor who made national headlines after he brought a series of high-profile charges against anti-ICE activists protesting in Los Angeles last month, but critics have observed that his office has since moved to dismiss some of those cases or reduce the charges.
The chief judge in Essayli’s district, Dolly Gee, an Obama appointee, declined to take action on permanently approving Essayli after his 120-day interim period. The Trump administration’s legal maneuvers to keep him in his job have positioned him to serve as the district’s lead prosecutor for at least an additional 210 days, the designated term for an acting U.S. attorney.
In the Northern District of New York, John Sarcone was also transitioned from interim to acting U.S. attorney.
Matt Finn contributed to this report.
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