Alina Habba, a former personal attorney for President Trump, has resigned as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey after an appeals court ruled last week that she was unlawfully serving in the role. Habba said in a social media statement Monday that she was stepping down not because of the legal challenges but “to protect the stability and integrity” of the U.S. attorney’s office. She added the move “will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me,” and said she will remain at the Department of Justice as the senior advisor to the attorney general for U.S. attorneys.
The resignation follows a series of court losses for the Justice Department in which judges found that several U.S. attorneys had not been appointed legally, including in Nevada, California and Virginia. Habba first rose to national attention as one of Trump’s personal attorneys who represented him in civil and criminal matters after his first term. After Trump returned to the White House, he named Habba in March to serve as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey on an interim basis and nominated her for the permanent post, but she did not secure enough Senate support for confirmation.
As her 120-day interim term neared its end, the U.S. District Court for New Jersey declined to extend her stay and instead appointed career prosecutor Desiree Grace. Attorney General Pam Bondi then removed Grace, and the administration used a series of complex legal steps to reinstall Habba as head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey. Those actions prompted legal challenges that culminated in a unanimous decision last week by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which found Habba was unlawfully serving and disqualified her from supervising cases.
The prolonged dispute over Habba’s authority had stalled many federal proceedings in New Jersey, disrupting court schedules and delaying prosecutions. In a statement, Bondi criticized the appeals court ruling, saying it has made it untenable for Habba to run her office and accusing judges of pausing trials aimed at bringing violent criminals to justice. Bondi said the department will seek further review of the decision and expressed confidence it will be reversed.
