PHILADELPHIA β President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Alina Habba, whom his administration maneuvered to keep in place as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, is disqualified from serving in the role, an appeals court said Monday.
A panel of judges from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Philadelphia sided with a lower-court judge's ruling after hearing oral arguments at which Habba was present on Oct. 20.
"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 β yet the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney's Office deserve some clarity and stability," the court wrote in a 32-page opinion.
It concluded: "We will affirm the District Court's disqualification order."
President Donald Trump speaks during a March 28Β swearing-in for Alina Habba as interim US Attorney General for New Jersey in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.Β
The ruling comes amid the push by Trump's Republican administration to keep Habba as the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a powerful post charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law. It also comes after the judges questioned the government's moves to keep Habba in place after her interim appointment expired and without her getting Senate confirmation.
Habba said after that hearing in a statement posted to social media that she was fighting on behalf of other candidates to be federal prosecutors who were denied a chance for a Senate hearing.
Messages were left Monday seeking comment from the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey, Habba's personal staffer and the Justice Department.
Alina Habba, President Donald Trump's pick to be the interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, speaks with reporters March 26Β outside the White House in Washington.Β
Others challenged
Habba is hardly the only Trump administration prosecutor whose appointment has been challenged by defense lawyers.
Last week, a federal judge dismissed criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after concluding that the hastily installed prosecutor who filed the charges, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed to the position of interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The Justice Department says it intends to appeal the rulings.
Similar challenges to other Trump appointees played out in Nevada, where a federal judge disqualified the president's appointee as well.
Lawyers for James are also expected to challenge the authority of the acting U.S. attorney in Albany, New York, John Sarcone, at a hearing on Thursday. The arguments in Albany to block subpoenas come as James pushes back against the Trump administrationβs investigation of cases she brought against Trump and the National Rifle Association.
The judges on the panel were two appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, D. Brooks Smith and D. Michael Fisher, as well as one named by Democratic President Barack Obama, Luis Felipe Restrepo.
Alina Habba speaks Nov. 4, 2024,Β before then-nominee Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at J.S. Dorton Arena in Raleigh, N.C.Β
Judge said Habba unlawfully serving
A lower-court judge, Matthew Brann, said in August that Habba's appointment was done with a "novel series of legal and personnel moves" and that she was unlawfully serving as U.S attorney for New Jersey.
That order said Habba's actions since July could be invalidated, but the judge stayed the order pending appeal.
The government claimed Habba is validly serving in the role under a federal statute allowing the first assistant attorney, a post she was appointed to by the Trump administration.
Who challenged?
The Habba case comes after several people charged with federal crimes in New Jersey challenged the legality of her tenure. They sought to block the charges, arguing she didn't have the authority to prosecute their cases after her 120-day term as interim U.S. attorney expired.
Habba was Trump's attorney in criminal and civil proceedings before he was elected to a second term. She served as a White House adviser briefly before Trump named her as a federal prosecutor in March.
Shortly after her appointment, she said in an interview that she hoped to help "turn New Jersey red," a rare overt political expression from a prosecutor.
She then brought a trespassing charge, eventually dropped, against Democratic Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka stemming from his visit to a federal immigration detention center.
From left, Attorney General Pam Bondi swears in Alina Habba, with husband Gregg Reuben holding the Bible, as interim US Attorney General for New Jersey onΒ March 28 in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.Β
Habba later charged Democratic U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver with assault stemming from the same incident, a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress other than for corruption. McIver denied the charges and pleaded not guilty. The case is pending.
Questions about whether Habba would continue in the job arose in July when her temporary appointment was ending and it became clear New Jersey's two Democratic U.S. senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, would not back her appointment.
This year as Habba's appointment expired, federal judges in New Jersey exercised their power under the law to replace her with a career prosecutor who served as her second-in-command.
Attorney General Pam Bondi then fired the prosecutor installed by the judges and renamed Habba as acting U.S. attorney. The Justice Department said the judges acted prematurely and said Trump had the authority to appoint his preferred candidate to enforce federal laws in the state.
Brann's ruling said the president's appointments are still subject to the time limits and power-sharing rules laid out in federal law.
