Federal judges in New Jersey have ousted Alina Habba as the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, refusing to extend the 120-day appointment President Trump gifted her in March.
Trump appointed her as interim attorney, but to stay full-time, Habba would need to be approved by district judges or have the Senate confirm her position. On Tuesday, New Jersey’s federal judges instead chose to replace Habba with longtime prosecutor Desiree Leigh Grace, who served as Habba’s assistant.
Habba was Trump’s personal lawyer, unsuccessfully defending him in his hush-money and E. Jean Carroll defamation cases. She made headlines for multiple alarming gaffes unbecoming of a U.S. attorney, and went to great lengths to defend the president, even making excuses for his falling asleep during his own trial. In March, she claimed that the thousands of military veterans indiscriminately fired by DOGE were simply unfit. She is also currently being sued by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for malicious persecution after she briefly charged him with trespassing following his arrest by ICE for attempting to enter a local detention center.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche railed against Habba’s firing, calling it politically motivated and arguing that the deadline was supposed to be longer.
“The district court judges in NJ are trying to force out @USAttyHabba before her term expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday,” he wrote Tuesday on X. “Their rush reveals what this was always about: a left-wing agenda, not the rule of law. When judges act like activists, they undermine confidence in our justice system. Alina is President Trump’s choice to lead—and no partisan bench can override that.”
Habba made a similar statement on Sean Hannity’s show Monday night, insinuating that New Jersey Senators Corey Booker and Andy Kim deliberately froze her out of her job, putting her at the mercy of judges who, to her, were biased and corrupt.
Habba has too many moments of incompetence for this firing to be entirely politically motivated, especially since she’s being replaced with the assistant she chose. And even if that is the case, her firing is only as political as her hiring was to begin with.
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