President Donald Trump appears to have found a way to circumvent the Senate and keep his embattled former personal attorney and partisan sidekick in power as the top prosecutor in New Jersey.
In March, Trump nominated Alina Habba, 41, to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey—a role that requires Senate confirmation—and appointed her as the interim U.S. attorney while the Senate considers her nomination.
That nomination, however, has stalled in the Senate over her partisan crusading, and her 120-day interim appointment was supposed to expire this week after a panel of federal judges voted not to extend it.
The judges appointed Habba’s chief deputy, Desiree Leigh Grace, to take over instead, and Habba’s newly minted prosecutorial career seemed to be over.
But now, through some legal maneuverings, the Trump administration has managed to extend Habba’s tenure by at least another 210 days, The Washington Post reported. The effort is part of a broader move to put Trump loyalists in charge of major U.S. attorney’s offices nationwide.
First, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired Grace just hours after the federal judges voted to appoint her. Then, she named Habba to the chief deputy position, which had been vacant since Grace was promoted. Finally, Trump pulled Habba’s nomination for a full four-year term as U.S. attorney.
Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, if nobody holds the title of U.S. attorney, the chief deputy—in this case Habba—automatically inherits the role. The law, however, says the position cannot be filled by someone whose nomination is pending before the Senate.
“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,” Habba crowed Thursday in a social media post.
It’s not clear, however, whether this is even legal, according to the Post. Bondi might not actually have the authority to fire Grace, but it remains to be seen whether the federal judges can enforce their decision, The New York Times reported earlier this week.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
Prior to her appointment in March, Habba did not have any experience in criminal law.
She had, however, proven her loyalty to the president by representing him in civil matters—including the defamation suit brought by author E. Jean Carroll—since 2021, when most major law firms wouldn’t go near him in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
She also vowed in the days after she was announced as the president’s pick for U.S. attorney to use the traditionally independent and non-partisan job to “turn New Jersey red.”
Some members of her office had hoped that Habba was just putting on a media show for Trump and his MAGA base, but instead, she has destroyed morale and sent career prosecutors running for the exits, The New York Times reported this week.
Before joining the U.S. attorney’s office, Habba also drooled over accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate and insulted veterans who were caught up in Elon Musk’s mass firings earlier this year.
“I don’t cower to pressure. I don’t answer to politics,” she wrote in Thursday’s social media post. “This is a fight for justice. And I’m all in.”
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