Former Trump personal lawyer Alina Habba resigns as acting US attorney for New Jersey
By Hannah Rabinowitz, Kara Scannell, Casey Gannon, CNN
(CNN) — Alina Habba, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, resigned Monday as the acting US attorney for the district of New Jersey, following an appeals court ruling finding that she was serving in her position unlawfully.
Habba, a staunch defender of Trump as his attorney and on the campaign trail, said she will step down to protect “the stability and integrity of the office which I love.”
“But do not mistake compliance for surrender,” she wrote in a statement shared on X. “This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.”
The Justice Department said Habba’s duties will be split between three people.
In a statement shared on X, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department will seek further review of the ruling deeming Habba’s appointment unlawful and that she will return to the position if it’s reversed.
Habba’s announcement comes one week after a a panel of appellate judges from the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals found the Trump administration violated the law when it used of a series of maneuvers to install her in the position after failing to win Senate support.
On Sunday, Habba told CNN at the Kennedy Center Honors that the office would be “making an announcement soon.”
“I think, obviously, it’s a big problem what we have going on. And it’s a problem for all sides, and all sides of the coin and for justice,” she said, referring to the recent appeals court ruling. “We’ll keep fighting. We’ll keep fighting. We’ll keep pushing, whatever we have to do.”
Habba was the first of Trump’s US attorney appointments to face a legal court challenge, but since then three other US attorneys were found to be serving unlawfully. Judges have rejected the Justice Department’s process, which they found to be an effort by the Trump administration to usurp the traditional appointment processes.
The maneuver of tapping a series of acting US attorneys, judges have said, would allow a presidential appointee to serve without Senate confirmation indefinitely.
Trump blasts Senate ‘blue slips’
Trump on Monday again railed against the “blue slip” process — or the the requirement that home state senators approve presidential appointments to roles including US attorney.
“We have about seven US attorneys who are not going to be able to keep their jobs much longer because of the blue slip,” Trump told reporters.
“I guess I just have to keep appointing people for three months and then just appoint another one, another one,” he said. “And it’s a very sad situation. We’re losing tremendous, we’re losing a lot of great people.”
Judges across the country have made similar rulings, including against Lindsey Halligan, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who brought the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. A judge dismissed both of those cases as a result.
The US attorneys serving Nevada and the Central District of California were also found to be serving illegally. The indictments against the defendants in those cases, including the ones challenging Habba, were not thrown out because other prosecutors were involved in the cases. Habba is the first to resign her position.
The court rulings have left some prosecutors unsure of how to move forward in cases. In New Jersey, after the appointment was initially challenged this summer, sentencings, plea deals and trial dates were placed on hold. The gears loosened and new cases were filed and new indictments were returned. Now, in addition to Habba’s signature, they also included the signature of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“Make no mistake, you can take the girl out of New Jersey but you cannot take New Jersey out of the girl,” Habba wrote in her statement Monday.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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