President Donald Trump named Alina Habba, one of his former personal attorneys and campaign spokespeople, as interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey on March 24.
Three days later Habba, who at the time had no prosecutorial experience, said in an interview with a far-right conspiracy theorist that she planned to use the traditionally nonpartisan role to influence New Jersey’s political alignment.
“We could turn New Jersey red. I really do believe that,” Habba said. “Hopefully while I’m there, I can help that cause.”
She quickly started to do just that.
By the end of May, Habba had opened an investigation into New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and state Attorney General Matt Platkin and brought charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Rep. LaMonica McIver (N.J.) — all Democrats.
Habba’s time-limited term as interim U.S. attorney was set by law to expire at the end of July. In fact, federal judges in New Jersey voted to oust her and instead chose a veteran prosecutor to replace her.
But after a multistep maneuver on the part of Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi to extend her term, Habba remains as the state’s top federal prosecutor.
The chaotic series of events has roiled the federal district of New Jersey, leaving the identity of its top federal law enforcement officer uncertain. Several federal court proceedings throughout the state were paused in response to the uncertainty, and now a court in neighboring Pennsylvania is weighing in to determine whether Trump’s effort to restore Habba’s authority over the office was legal.
The court’s ultimate decision has broad implications, as the president and DOJ have taken similar actions to extend the terms of other interim U.S. attorneys around the country. And like Habba, many of those controversial officials have used their temporary positions to go after Trump’s political opponents.
Judges, legal scholars raise red flags over DOJ’s vacancy tactics
To keep loyalists at the helm of U.S. attorneys’ offices, legal experts warn that Trump and the DOJ are exploiting loopholes and making extraordinary claims of presidential power that circumvent the appointment processes laid out by the Constitution and federal statutes.
Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at Columbia, told Democracy Docket that the effort is a continuation of Trump’s attempt to assert direct control over the justice system.
“This is an administration with an outsized notion of executive authority and an absolute commitment to having control from the White House over all aspects of the federal criminal process,” Richman said.
“The idea that the scheme in which the president appoints U.S. attorneys with the advice and consent of Congress could be short circuited by the president just giving this authority to some rando finds little basis in law or history,” he added.
In early July, Trump nominated Habba to be New Jersey’s U.S. attorney for the next four years. Her nomination was dead on arrival to the Senate due to the chamber’s century-old custom, called the blue slip, of allowing senators to object to federal judges, federal prosecutors and U.S. marshals nominated for positions in their home states.
New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, Corey Booker and Andy Kim, objected to Habba’s nomination, saying she was unfit to serve due to her politically motivated statements and actions.
With Habba’s nomination stalled and her 120-day term coming to an end, the federal statute governing U.S. attorney vacancies gave New Jersey’s federal district court judges the authority to determine who would lead the U.S. attorney’s office next.
Habba asked a panel of district judges to extend her tenure, which they declined to do. The panel on July 22 instead selected Desiree Leigh Grace, an experienced prosecutor who had been in the office for almost a decade. Habba in March previously appointed Grace as her first assistant, a key second-in-command role within U.S. attorney offices.
Just hours after Grace’s selection, Attorney General Bondi in a shocking social media post announced that Grace was no longer first assistant and attacked the judges who appointed her U.S. attorney.
“This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers,” Bondi claimed.
After firing Grace, top DOJ officials and Trump acted in tandem to override the federal judges and restore Habba atop the office.
First, Habba resigned as interim U.S. attorney before Trump withdrew her nomination before the Senate. Bondi then appointed Habba to Grace’s former first assistant position and named her a “special attorney to the attorney general.”
Because the U.S. attorney post was vacant from Habba’s resignation and Grace’s dismissal, the DOJ claimed that Habba would automatically fill the role — but this time for a 210-day term under a different vacancy statute, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
“President Trump clearly does not want the best people leading our U.S. Attorney’s Offices — loyalty is the only requisite,” Stacey Young, the executive director and founder of Justice Connection, told Democracy Docket in a statement.
“The President should focus on nominating qualified attorneys who can be confirmed by the Senate rather than going through legally questionable shenanigans that undermine the good work of the department,” Young added.
Experts have noted that the president and attorney general’s arbitrary dismissal of Grace, rapid-fire swapping of Habba’s titles and use of federal vacancy laws — especially two separate vacancies mechanisms back to back for the same vacancy — is fraught with numerous legal issues. The legal uncertainty quickly led to challenges to Habba’s authority.
Thomas Mirigliano, a defense attorney representing men facing a criminal trial over drug and gun charges in New Jersey, asked a court to throw out the indictment against his clients or bar Habba and her deputies from prosecuting the case.
“By circumventing the constitutionally mandated appointment procedures, and encroaching upon judicial powers explicitly granted by statute, the executive branch has exceeded its lawful authority,” Mirigliano argued.
To go forward with the trial would violate not only his clients’ due process rights but also “the due process rights of all similarly situated defendants,” Mirigliano said.
In response to Mirigliano’s challenge, the DOJ made several expansive claims, including that Habba “can do anything the U.S. Attorney can do” because Bondi designated her as a special attorney.
Since federal district judges in New Jersey had a role in replacing Habba, Mirigliano’s challenge was transferred to Matthew Brann, a district court judge in neighboring Pennsylvania.
In a subsequent ruling, Brann said he would not dismiss the charges against Mirigliano’s clients but would consider whether Habba can legally continue as acting U.S. attorney. The judge appeared skeptical of Trump and the DOJ’s maneuvering to reappoint Habba and said he was concerned about the arguments the DOJ made while defending its actions.
“The Government’s position has extreme implications that it openly embraces: by using the Special Attorney designation and delegation, Ms. Habba may exercise all of the powers of the United States Attorney without being subject to any of the statutory limitations on that office,” Brann wrote.
How Brann eventually rules won’t just have implications for Habba’s role, as the DOJ similarly reshuffled titles to keep other problematic officials at the top of U.S. attorneys’ offices in Northern New York, Nevada and Los Angeles.
Trump allies retain DOJ power despite rejection by judges
John Sarcone III’s stint as interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York was set to expire in July after federal judges declined to permanently appoint him. However, just days after judges rejected him, the DOJ redesignated his title and named him as a special attorney.
A former Trump campaign attorney with no previous experience as a prosecutor, Sarcone’s previous four months in the traditionally impartial role had been chaotic and norm-breaking. He publicly denounced Albany Police Department’s leadership, openly feuded with local journalists and criticized former President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
Earlier this year, Sarcone appeared to violate internal DOJ policies around commenting on ongoing investigations by publicly confirming the DOJ’s probe into New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), one of Trump’s foremost adversaries.
While confirming the probe, Sarcone disparaged James by accusing her of being improper, unprofessional and unethical. Sarcone is also investigating James’ office over its civil fraud lawsuit against Trump for faulty business practices.
The DOJ made title changes to extend the terms of Sigal Chattah as temporary U.S. attorney in Nevada and Bill Essayli as temporary U.S. attorney for Los Angeles as well.
Hundreds of federal and state judges asked courts to reject Chattah’s permanent appointment based on her long history of racially charged and violence-tinged statements against political opponents and elected officials. However, Trump and the DOJ extended Chattah’s tenure before courts could weigh in.
Like Habba and Sarcone, Chattah, a former member of the Republican National Committee (RNC), has shown partisan bias while in her temporary role.
Days after assuming the interim role, Chattah presented a report at an RNC event after being introduced with her formal DOJ title, according to the Nevada Independent. She didn’t publicly resign from her RNC position until weeks after being sworn in.
Chattah, too, has gone after Nevada’s U.S. senators, Catherine Cortez-Masto and Jacky Rosen — both Democrats who have strongly opposed her appointment.
Without providing evidence, Chattah last month accused Cortez-Masto and Rosen of committing corruption. She recently responded to Cortez-Masto and Rosen’s criticisms with cryptic references to bodies being buried.
“You know, a lot of these people, I know that they’re scared because I know where a lot of the bodies are buried because I come from the defense world,” Chattah told CBS affiliate 8 News Now. “Without saying too much about my previous experience as a defense attorney, but when you played that side, you know where all the bodies are buried.”
“Sometimes we even choose the location to bury them,” Chattah added.
In that same interview, Chattah said her office would soon announce an elections-related case but offered no details. Chattah pursued several anti-voting and elections-related lawsuits before becoming acting U.S. attorney.
Essayli, the temporary U.S. attorney for Los Angeles, is former assistant U.S. attorney and a twice-elected Republican California assemblyman. Since assuming office, he’s played a central role in carrying out Trump’s mass deportations and the president’s excessive response to protests and civil unrest in the Los Angeles area.
In June, Essayli charged David Huerta, the president of one of the largest labor unions in the country, with conspiring to impede an officer — a felony — for protesting an immigration raid at a private business June 6.
The criminal complaint against Huerta claimed that the labor leader attempted to “intimidate” officers by “banging” on a gate with his hands, taunting ICE officials for wearing masks and being near people screaming expletives.
Essayli has also repeatedly pressured his subordinates in the Los Angeles US Attorney’s Office to pursue MAGA-aligned cases despite warnings of insufficient evidence, according to Bloomberg Law.
Richman, the former federal prosecutor, said he doesn’t find it surprising that Habba, Sarcone, Chattah and Essayli have used their roles to go after Trump’s perceived political enemies or detractors.
“Since their placement there was just an act of pure partisan power, they’re going to be acting in the name of pure partisan power,” Richman said.