Alina Habba Fails to Get US Attorney Nod From New Jersey Court

[LetMyPeopleVote]

This made me smile

Link to tweet

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/white-collar-and-criminal-law/alina-habba-fails-to-get-us-attorney-nod-from-new-jersey-judges

Federal trial judges in New Jersey appointed Desiree Grace, first assistant in the state’s US attorney’s office, as interim head of the office, declining to extend the appointment of current temporary chief Alina Habba.

The appointment was announced by the District Court for the District of New Jersey in a Tuesday standing order signed by Chief Judge Renee Marie Bumb.

Habba, a former Trump personal defense attorney, has since late March served as the acting head of the New Jersey US attorney’s office. The office during her tenure brought high-profile cases against Democratic politicians and dismissed a long-running overseas corruption matter.

An interim US attorney can serve for no longer than 120 days after their appointment, under federal law. Once that appointment expires, a district court “may appoint a US attorney to serve until the vacancy is filled” on a permanent basis.

Habba can go back to representing parking garages

[Moostache]

1. Alina Habba and Failed are nearing synonym status by now... (n/t)

[underpants]

2. So she has to take down the three pictures of herself she had hung in the office

meeting room I think.

[BoRaGard]

3. This should teach us all an important life lesson

about being an unqualified, and incompetent party hack who is in Perpetual BrownNose Mode to a freaking corrupted Felon/Rapist dick.

To wit, that's a really crappy idea for a life plan.

[mcar]

4. Love it!

[sheshe2]

5. So sad!

Not!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Maddow Blog-Alina Habba's troubled tenure as a federal prosecutor ends with a whimper

As Trump's former defense attorney gives up her U.S. attorney post, it's worth remembering that she never should've been appointed in the first place.

As Alina Habba walks away from her U.S. attorney post, it's worth remembering a key detail:

Trump never should've appointed his unqualified former defense attorney to serve as a federal prosecutor in the first place. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-07-22T18:34:05.449Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/alina-habbas-troubled-tenure-federal-prosecutor-ends-whimper-rcna220301

With this in mind, as Habba's appointment neared its end, there was still a chance that federal judges in New Jersey would allow her to hang on to her job. As NBC News reported, that didn’t happen:

Trump’s former personal lawyer Alina Habba has been replaced as interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey after serving the maximum of 120 days on the job. Trump had officially nominated her for the position, but her nomination became stalled in the Senate. Federal judges could have authorized her to remain on the job, but they instead named her top deputy, Desiree Leigh Grace, as her replacement.

As Habba weighs her career options and her unfortunate tenure wraps up, there are a handful of angles to this story that are worth keeping in mind.

Habba never should’ve been appointed in the first place: I realize that the incumbent president tends to reward his former lawyers with powerful legal positions in his administration, but Habba was spectacularly unqualified for this position. Not only did she have no experience as a prosecutor, but Habba is perhaps best known for helping file a bizarre lawsuit targeting Hillary Clinton and several other Democrats in 2022, which proved so ridiculous that a judge imposed harsh sanctions on Habba for bringing “political grievances masquerading as legal claims” to court.

Habba’s tenure was a fiasco: The New York Times reported this week that Habba, since taking office, “shattered morale inside the U.S. attorney’s office and left many prosecutors looking for a way out, according to 16 close observers.” The same report noted that Habba disbanded the office’s Civil Rights Division, killed the office’s longest-running prosecution just days before it was scheduled to go to trial, and installed three framed pictures of herself in the office’s conference room.......

Habba faces an uncertain political future: Despite (or perhaps, because of) her disastrous tenure as an interim U.S. attorney, Trump has nominated her to fill that same position on a permanent basis. That said, the Republican-led Senate has, to date, ignored her nomination, though that might yet change. Watch this space.