A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Alina Habba, President Trump’s chief prosecutor in New Jersey, was improperly installed in her post, and it disqualified her from prosecutions against two defendants.
Circuit Judge D. Michael Fisher, writing for the three-judge panel, said the law has a specific system for filling vacancies in U.S. attorney offices, and Mr. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi broke the rules in their attempt to shoehorn Ms. Habba in as acting U.S. attorney.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not toss out the prosecutions themselves, but ruled Ms. Habba cannot participate in them.
Mr. Trump has nominated Ms. Habba, who was a personal lawyer for Mr. Trump, to be the U.S. attorney. And in the meantime, she was appointed to act as the chief prosecutor, first as acting U.S. attorney and, when the clock ran out on that, as “first assistant U.S. attorney,” which would still leave her in charge.
But Judge Fisher said under the law, only the person who was first assistant when the job first became vacant can serve as the chief. And because Mr. Trump has officially nominated Ms. Habba, she is also barred from being the acting U.S. attorney at this point.
Ms. Bondi had attempted to cure the situation by delegating powers to Ms. Habba as a “special attorney,” which the Justice Department said allowed her to act as the office chief. Judge Fisher said that, too, violates the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which lays out the specific rules for becoming an acting U.S. attorney.
“It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers 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 some clarity and stability,” Judge Fisher, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote.
He was joined by Judges Brooks Smith, another Bush appointee, and Judge Felipe Restrepo, an Obama appointee.
The 3rd Circuit did not toss out the indictments.
That’s a better result for Mr. Trump than he suffered last week in Virginia, where a federal judge ruled another acting U.S. attorney, Lindsey Halligan, was improperly appointed. Judge Cameron Currie then scrapped cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, two high-profile Trump adversaries.
Judge Currie said that because Ms. Halligan was the only prosecutor to sign off on the prosecutions of the two, the cases had to be dismissed.
In California, Mr. Trump’s acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, has also been ruled to be illegally serving.
Both Mr. Essayli and Ms. Habba were appointed to serve as acting U.S. attorneys earlier this year, filling positions that became vacant after their predecessors — Biden picks — resigned.
Under the law, acting U.S. attorneys can serve for 120 days. Both have stayed in control well beyond that time frame.
The law gives federal judges the power to appoint a successor after that 120-day period is up.
Ms. Habba’s time expired in July, and the judges in New Jersey declined to keep her on beyond that, moving to appoint another person in the office.
The Trump administration signaled its defiance.
“Donald J. Trump is the 47th President. Pam Bondi is the Attorney General. And I am now the Acting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey,” Ms. Habba posted to social media at the time. “I don’t cower to pressure. I don’t answer to politics. This is a fight for justice. And I’m all in.”
But judges struck back, using challenges in two criminal cases to rule that Ms. Habba is illegally serving.
She has now been disqualified from prosecutions of Cesar Humberto Pina in one case, and Julien Giraud Jr. and Julien Giraud III in a separate case.
Judge Matthew W. Brann, an Obama appointee to the court in Pennsylvania who was brought in to hear the challenge to Ms. Habba, ruled in August that she wasn’t able to oversee the cases. He allowed the two indictments to stand, but ordered Ms. Habba to play no role in either of them.
He had stayed his decision pending the circuit court’s decision.
Ms. Habba is also overseeing other high-profile litigation, including the assault case brought against Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat charged after she was seen on video bashing a forearm against a federal officer during a scuffle at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility.
Ms. McIver has pleaded not guilty, and argued her prosecution was selective and vindictive. A judge has allowed the case to proceed.
