Alina Habba, who served as a personal attorney to former President Trump, has resigned as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey after an appeals court concluded last week that she was unlawfully occupying the post. In a social media statement, Habba said 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 that the move ‘will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me’ and that she will remain at the Justice Department as the senior advisor to the attorney general for U.S. attorneys.
Habba rose to national attention representing Trump in civil and criminal matters after his first term. After he returned to the White House, he named her in March to serve as acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey on an interim basis and nominated her for the permanent position. She did not secure enough Senate support for confirmation.
As Habba’s 120-day interim term was ending, the U.S. District Court for New Jersey declined to extend her stay and instead appointed career prosecutor Desiree Grace to lead the office. Attorney General Pam Bondi removed Grace, and the administration then used a series of legal maneuvers to reinstall Habba. Those steps prompted lawsuits that culminated in a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which found Habba had been unlawfully serving and barred her from supervising cases.
The dispute over who had legal authority to run the U.S. attorney’s office stretched on for months and disrupted federal proceedings in New Jersey, stalling court schedules and delaying prosecutions. In response to the appeals court ruling, Bondi criticized the decision, saying it made it untenable for Habba to run the office and accusing judges of pausing trials intended to bring violent criminals to justice. Bondi said the Justice Department will seek further review of the decision and expressed confidence it will be reversed.
Habba’s resignation ends the immediate uncertainty over the office’s leadership, though the legal fallout and delayed cases have raised broader questions about appointment practices for interim U.S. attorneys and the impact of such disputes on ongoing prosecutions.