Federal judges boot Alina Habba, pick New Jersey’s next top prosecutor

WASHINGTON — A federal judiciary panel — mainly made up of judges picked by former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden — voted not to extend Alina Habba’s term as President Trump’s interim New Jersey US attorney.

Habba, who had served as the Garden State’s top prosecutor since being sworn in on March 28, has just 120 days to serve before her temporary term expires on July 26.

In the absence of Senate confirmation and with Trump not willing to pull the nomination, the Garden State’s 17 federal judges could have voted to extend her tenure.

But they opted against it.

In a signed order Tuesday, Chief US District Judge Renée Marie Bumb announced the appointment of another member of the New Jersey US Attorney’s office, Desiree Leigh Grace, to take over for Habba — who had appointed Grace first assistant US attorney shortly after taking office.

Following the result of the vote, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the Jersey judges of “trying to force out [Habba] before her term expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday.”

“Their rush reveals what this was always about: a left-wing agenda, not the rule of law,” Blanche wrote on X. “When judges act like activists, they undermine confidence in our justice.”

Federal law allows for district judges to extend a nominee’s interim term until the vacancy is filled, should they fail to be confirmed by the US Senate.

John Sarcone, Trump’s pick to lead the US attorney’s office based in Albany, had been rebuffed by a similar board of judges but apparently found a workaround when Attorney General Pam Bondi made him a special assistant US attorney.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had previously indicated he would place a hold on Sarcone or any other Trump nominees for positions in the Empire State.

“I became ‘acting’ US attorney for an indefinite term,” Sarcone explained to the New York Law Journal, claiming he had “all the powers of the US attorney” as the top prosecutor in the Northern District of New York.

It’s unclear if the DOJ will pursue a similar path with Habba, who was blocked from beginning the traditional vetting process in the Senate.

New Jersey’s Democratic senators — Cory Booker and Andy Kim — both already opposed Habba’s confirmation, withholding their so-called “blue slips” to block the Judiciary Committee from considering Trump’s onetime personal attorney.

Without a blue slip, Habba’s only choice was to have her term extended by the New Jersey judges.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) also pressured the state’s judiciary panel, claiming Habba had “maliciously indicted” New Jersey Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver for her actions during a protest at a Newark immigration detention center in May.

“Habba is a woefully unqualified political hack who must go,” Jeffries declared in a July 18 post on X. “She must be rejected by the Federal District Court Judges who are considering whether to retain her.”

Jeffries’ action prompted a US House Ethics Committee filing from a conservative legal group, the Article III Project, which accused the House Democratic leader of “corruptly strong-arming 17 New Jersey U.S. district judges–including 15 Obama and Biden judges–to fire” Habba.

Mike Davis, the president of the Article III Project, also charged that Jeffries was improperly intervening in federal criminal proceedings involving McIver.

Habba had also threatened but never brought charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for the demonstration at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.

McIver has pleaded not guilty to assaulting ICE officers during the protest.