{"id":64718,"date":"2025-12-08T20:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T20:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/64718\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T20:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T20:57:07","slug":"alina-habba-resigns-as-acting-nj-us-attorney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/64718\/","title":{"rendered":"Alina Habba resigns as acting NJ US attorney"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Acting New Jersey US Attorney Alina Habba announced she is stepping down as the Garden State\u2019s top federal prosecutor due to an appeals court ruling\u00a0that found she was disqualified from the role<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result of the Third Circuit\u2019s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey,\u201d Habba said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut do not mistake compliance for surrender. This decision will not weaken the Justice Department, and it will not weaken me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting New Jersey US Attorney\u00a0Alina Habba\u00a0resigned Dec. 8, 2025, after an appeals court ruling that found she was disqualified from the role. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

President Trump had tapped Habba, who previously served as his personal attorney\u00a0and later a White House advisor,\u00a0for the role in an acting capacity in March.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0her time as New Jersey\u2019s top fed was torpedoed after defendants in two separate criminal cases cried foul, claiming she was never legally in the job to begin with because Trump\u2019s appointment\u00a0violated a 1998 law governing federal vacancies.<\/p>\n

A lower-court judge sided with them, tossing out work she\u2019d done since late July \u2014 but hit pause on the ruling while the feds scrambled to appeal.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration insisted Habba\u2019s appointment was legal under a federal law that lets a\u00a0first assistant\u00a0slide into the US attorney\u2019s chair temporarily.<\/p>\n

Habba, 41, was sworn in as the Garden State\u2019s chief prosecutor on March 28 for a 120-day stint. But on July 22, a panel of federal judges refused to extend her run and bumped First Assistant US Attorney Desiree Grace into the top spot instead.<\/p>\n

Alina Habba attending the 48th Kennedy Center Honors on Dec. 7, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t sit well with the Justice Department;\u00a0Attorney General Pam Bondi\u00a0promptly axed Grace and put Habba back into place.<\/p>\n

But the appeals court pushed back, ruling that Bondi never legally made Habba first assistant before firing Grace \u2014 nullifying the government\u2019s argument allowing her return as acting US attorney.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place,\u201d senior US Circuit Judge D. Michael Fisher wrote in the 32-page ruling published Dec. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Habba was sworn in as interim US attorney for the District of New Jersey on March 28, 2025. AP<\/p>\n

Habba participating in the arrest of an alleged gang member by US Marshalls at the Pennington Court housing project in Newark on April 2, 2025. Stefan Jeremiah for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIts efforts to elevate its preferred candidate for US Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, to the role of Acting US Attorney demonstrate the difficulties it has faced \u2014 yet the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the US Attorney\u2019s Office deserve some clarity and stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

They further said the law barred Habba from serving in the role once Trump nominated her for Senate confirmation on June 30 \u2014 even though he later yanked the nomination so Bondi could reinstall her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government\u2019s argument basically defeats itself,\u201d Judge Fisher wrote, noting their logic would allow even rejected nominees to waltz back in as acting officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Acting New Jersey US Attorney Alina Habba announced she is stepping down as the Garden State\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[419,153,1066,9,11,10,87,23699,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-64718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-new-jersey","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-us-attorney","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}