The president’s personal lawyer Alina Habba is once again the acting US Attorney for New Jersey. It appears that news of her departure was greatly exaggerated… or at least premature.
Habba had no prosecutorial experience before Trump tapped her in March to lead the US Attorney’s Office in her home state. Her greatest claim to fame was losing her boss $88 million in damages in the E. Jean Carroll defamation cases and $364 million in civil fraud penalties. Her greatest claim to infamy was the $15,000 settlement she foisted on a waitress at Trump’s Bedminster club to surrender her sexual harassment and assault claims — a contract which flagrantly violated New Jersey’s Civil Rights Law. Although the million dollars in sanctions for filing a frivolous RICO suit against Hillary Clinton and James Comey is a close second.
But no matter! She’s loyal enough to say absolutely any batshit thing on TV, and so she’s staying put.
Until last week, the president appears not to have cared much about whether Habba remained on the job. He nominated her for a 120-day interim appointment in March, and couldn’t be bothered to put her name forward for a permanent position until July — not nearly enough time for her to get confirmed without an intensive White House pressure campaign that never materialized. But his desultory efforts kicked into high gear after judges on the US District Court for New Jersey dared to nominate someone else for the position under 28 USC § 546 which allows the court to fill any vacancy.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche, both former personal attorneys for Trump, were incensed on behalf of their compatriot.
The allegation was preposterous on its face. The judges had no obligation to select Habba. They were perfectly entitled to choose any lawyer in America. In the event, they tapped Habba’s own deputy, Desiree Grace, a nine-year veteran of DOJ who is a Republican to boot.
And Habba’s short tenure has hardly been a tour of glory. After launching a failed prosecution of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, she indicted Representative LaMonica McIver on the flimsiest of justifications. She’s even making threatening noises about Governor Phil Murphy and the state’s Attorney General Matthew Platkin. When she said on a podcast that she hoped to “turn New Jersey red,” she wasn’t kidding. Which is perhaps why morale has cratered under her leadership, with 16 current and former staffers running to the New York Times to say things had gone to shit under Habba’s leadership.
All of which are pretty good reasons to put a career official in there to right the ship until Trump can get around to getting someone confirmed!
But this minor act of judicial independence was too much for the Trump administration, and so they decided to put Habba in the office by hook or by crook. First they fired Grace, a move which would have no effect on the judicial appointment, but did serve to punish her for saying she’d accept the position. Then they named Habba as her own deputy, as they just did in the Northern District of New York with John Sarcone III, another US Attorney they couldn’t be bothered to confirm. Then they pulled her pending nomination in the Senate, to get around the Federal Vacancies Reform Act’s prohibition on a nominee serving in an “acting” role. And then they let Habba, the first assistant, assume the post of acting US Attorney when the position became “vacant” by the expiration of her own interim appointment that expired yesterday.
Habba handled the situation with her usual indignant self-righteousness.
How very dare anyone question the right of a person with no qualifications and no senate confirmation to hold office indefinitely! She has the anointment of the king upon her forehead, and isn’t that ample authority?
Tune in next week when we get to play this same stupid game in the Central District of California with Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli.
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
The post Alina Habba Is So Back, Baby appeared first on Above the Law.
The president’s personal lawyer Alina Habba is once again the acting US Attorney for New Jersey. It appears that news of her departure was greatly exaggerated… or at least premature.
Habba had no prosecutorial experience before Trump tapped her in March to lead the US Attorney’s Office in her home state. Her greatest claim to fame was losing her boss $88 million in damages in the E. Jean Carroll defamation cases and $364 million in civil fraud penalties. Her greatest claim to infamy was the $15,000 settlement she foisted on a waitress at Trump’s Bedminster club to surrender her sexual harassment and assault claims — a contract which flagrantly violated New Jersey’s Civil Rights Law. Although the million dollars in sanctions for filing a frivolous RICO suit against Hillary Clinton and James Comey is a close second.
But no matter! She’s loyal enough to say absolutely any batshit thing on TV, and so she’s staying put.
Until last week, the president appears not to have cared much about whether Habba remained on the job. He nominated her for a 120-day interim appointment in March, and couldn’t be bothered to put her name forward for a permanent position until July — not nearly enough time for her to get confirmed without an intensive White House pressure campaign that never materialized. But his desultory efforts kicked into high gear after judges on the US District Court for New Jersey dared to nominate someone else for the position under 28 USC § 546 which allows the court to fill any vacancy.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche, both former personal attorneys for Trump, were incensed on behalf of their compatriot.
The allegation was preposterous on its face. The judges had no obligation to select Habba. They were perfectly entitled to choose any lawyer in America. In the event, they tapped Habba’s own deputy, Desiree Grace, a nine-year veteran of DOJ who is a Republican to boot.
And Habba’s short tenure has hardly been a tour of glory. After launching a failed prosecution of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, she indicted Representative LaMonica McIver on the flimsiest of justifications. She’s even making threatening noises about Governor Phil Murphy and the state’s Attorney General Matthew Platkin. When she said on a podcast that she hoped to “turn New Jersey red,” she wasn’t kidding. Which is perhaps why morale has cratered under her leadership, with 16 current and former staffers running to the New York Times to say things had gone to shit under Habba’s leadership.
All of which are pretty good reasons to put a career official in there to right the ship until Trump can get around to getting someone confirmed!
But this minor act of judicial independence was too much for the Trump administration, and so they decided to put Habba in the office by hook or by crook. First they fired Grace, a move which would have no effect on the judicial appointment, but did serve to punish her for saying she’d accept the position. Then they named Habba as her own deputy, as they just did in the Northern District of New York with John Sarcone III, another US Attorney they couldn’t be bothered to confirm. Then they pulled her pending nomination in the Senate, to get around the Federal Vacancies Reform Act’s prohibition on a nominee serving in an “acting” role. And then they let Habba, the first assistant, assume the post of acting US Attorney when the position became “vacant” by the expiration of her own interim appointment that expired yesterday.
Habba handled the situation with her usual indignant self-righteousness.
How very dare anyone question the right of a person with no qualifications and no senate confirmation to hold office indefinitely! She has the anointment of the king upon her forehead, and isn’t that ample authority?
Tune in next week when we get to play this same stupid game in the Central District of California with Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli.
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
