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Trump is running out of personal lawyers to elevate to the DOJ [View all]
An appeals court’s dismissal of Alina Habba’s appointment highlights the DOJ’s depleted bench of MAGA lawyers.
Trump is running out of personal lawyers to elevate to the DOJ
— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) 2025-12-02T13:59:55.019Z
An appeals court’s dismissal of Alina Habba’s appointment highlights the DOJ’s depleted bench of MAGA lawyers.
https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-lawyers-justice-alina-habba
It’s been a bad week for President Donald Trump’s attempts to transform the Justice Department into his personal retribution squad. Monday saw a federal appeals panel confirm that Alina Habba’s controversial appointment as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey wasn’t kosher. Their ruling came on the heels of a federal judge’s determination that Lindsay Halligan was unlawfully appointed to serve as the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Both Habba and Halligan came to their roles after previously acting as personal attorneys to President Trump. That they were tapped at all showcases how weak the backbench of lawyers willing to defend the MAGA agenda in court really is. And with their dismissals, it’s safe to say that Trump is running low on lawyers to fill in the massive gaps needed to skillfully defend his most controversial policies......
Look no further than Habba’s initial appointment to see what a struggle the Justice Department has had in finding qualified prosecutors. She mostly acted as a spokesperson during Trump’s trials rather than presenting cases, hammering home her client’s talking points. Habba was unable to win Senate confirmation as U.S. attorney, and was instead moved back into the spot despite her interim appointment lapsing.
Meanwhile, Halligan was a pinch hitter drafted after the initial choice to lead the Eastern District of Virginia’s office was unwilling to go after Trump’s enemies without clear evidence of a crime. She’d never served as a prosecutor before but still rushed to court to file charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both of those cases were tossed out by the same judge who ruled against Halligan’s appointment — but James’ case at least could be brought back by a properly appointed U.S. attorney.
As has become all too common a caveat, there’s always the chance that the Supreme Court completely reverses these recent decisions on appeal, somehow finding Habba and Halligan’s appointments lawful. And there are still plenty of other former Trump attorneys who are waiting in the wings. But the fact that some who might be more experienced than Halligan and Habba have yet to be tapped is telling.
As it stands, the scramble to find lawyers who are both sufficiently loyal and able to make ridiculously political arguments hold up in court is failing. Seeing Habba’s and Halligan’s doomed efforts to bend the law to Trump’s will has been a rare beacon of hope during an overall disconcerting year. With their removal, the short-list of Trumpist attorneys to carry on their legacy grows blessedly shorter.
Both Habba and Halligan came to their roles after previously acting as personal attorneys to President Trump. That they were tapped at all showcases how weak the backbench of lawyers willing to defend the MAGA agenda in court really is. And with their dismissals, it’s safe to say that Trump is running low on lawyers to fill in the massive gaps needed to skillfully defend his most controversial policies......
Look no further than Habba’s initial appointment to see what a struggle the Justice Department has had in finding qualified prosecutors. She mostly acted as a spokesperson during Trump’s trials rather than presenting cases, hammering home her client’s talking points. Habba was unable to win Senate confirmation as U.S. attorney, and was instead moved back into the spot despite her interim appointment lapsing.
Meanwhile, Halligan was a pinch hitter drafted after the initial choice to lead the Eastern District of Virginia’s office was unwilling to go after Trump’s enemies without clear evidence of a crime. She’d never served as a prosecutor before but still rushed to court to file charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both of those cases were tossed out by the same judge who ruled against Halligan’s appointment — but James’ case at least could be brought back by a properly appointed U.S. attorney.
As has become all too common a caveat, there’s always the chance that the Supreme Court completely reverses these recent decisions on appeal, somehow finding Habba and Halligan’s appointments lawful. And there are still plenty of other former Trump attorneys who are waiting in the wings. But the fact that some who might be more experienced than Halligan and Habba have yet to be tapped is telling.
As it stands, the scramble to find lawyers who are both sufficiently loyal and able to make ridiculously political arguments hold up in court is failing. Seeing Habba’s and Halligan’s doomed efforts to bend the law to Trump’s will has been a rare beacon of hope during an overall disconcerting year. With their removal, the short-list of Trumpist attorneys to carry on their legacy grows blessedly shorter.
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