Left: Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon). Right: “Acting” U.S. Attorney Alina Habba speaking in an interview about federal judges voting against extending her term as New Jersey’s top prosecutor (The Benny Show/YouTube).
“Acting” U.S. Attorney of New Jersey Alina Habba says the federal judges who took a vote and decided not to extend her months-long tenure as the Garden State‘s top federal prosecutor “preempted and struck out” after she managed to land back in the role days later.
“They are missing a very important point, which is that the President of the United States picks the United States attorneys,” Habba blasted Saturday in an interview on “The Benny Show” with right-wing political commentator and YouTuber Benny Johnson. “We are part of the executive branch,” Habba said. “I’m still the Acting U.S. Attorney. I’m ready to rock and roll and get back to work, which is what this is all supposed to be about. This is just a lot of noise, and it’s unfortunate.”
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President Donald Trump‘s former personal defense attorney was given the news last Tuesday that she was no longer the “interim” U.S. attorney of New Jersey and was being replaced by her first assistant, Desiree Grace, following a standing order to appoint her at the end of her 120-day term. Her last day was supposed to be Friday, July 25, but Habba reportedly resigned on Thursday before being reappointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to Grace’s old position of chief deputy, according to Habba.
Bondi announced Friday that Grace had been “removed” from the U.S. attorney’s office and replaced by her new second in command: Habba.
“We’re supposed to do our job, which is to clean up crime … and instead, there’s been this political noise that really has no place in the Department of Justice,” Habba said Saturday. “They used to tell me, ‘How do we know you’re not going to be political?’ Meanwhile, their behavior is exactly that.”
Asked how it was possible for “rogue district judges” to “usurp the power of the presidency,” Habba claimed to put it “in really simple terms” for Johnson and viewers — saying it was a “complicated mechanism, what’s happening,” and a “broken one.” She criticized New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim for holding up her nomination through the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition, which is an informal Senate practice that allows home-state senators to approve or block federal judicial nominees and U.S. attorney appointments in their respective states.
“What we’re seeing is a systemic problem where they’re using the blue slip courtesy — it’s not a law — as a mechanism to block the appointed U.S. attorneys for the Department of Justice by the president,” Habba said. “And that puts those US attorneys in a position where they’re kind of stuck and you’re in this freeze and you can’t get out and then they’ll run the clock on you.”
Habba added, “They’re attempting to thwart the president’s powers.”
Habba had served as a legal spokeswoman and one of the attorneys for private citizen Trump through his New York civil fraud trial, E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit, and more before she parlayed those losses into a counselor to the president role and a position as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. She was appointed by Bondi on an interim basis nearly 120 days ago, the limit for acting appointments to serve under the relevant statute.
Although Trump has nominated Habba to serve permanently as U.S. attorney, the administration has not been able to get that nomination off the ground in the U.S. Senate before her acting stint’s expiration, leaving Habba at the mercy of judges in the meantime. Bondi named Habba interim U.S. attorney in March pursuant to 28 U.S. Code § 546, a statute which says such an appointee could remain in that role either upon confirmation by the U.S. Senate or for a period of 120 days.
Habba claimed Saturday that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) gave “direct instructions on Twitter” telling the federal judges to vote and block her.
“Once it gets out of the Senate’s ownership, the judges — if you’re interim — can vote to keep you,” Habba said. “So I stepped down as the interim and released my nomination and I’m now the acting U.S. attorney.”
Matt Naham contributed to this report.Â
