Former Trump lawyer Alina Habba is disqualified as top New Jersey prosecutor, US appeals court rules

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 10:47 AM EST, December 1, 2025


PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Alina Habba, whom his administration has maneuvered to keep in place as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, is disqualified from serving in the role, an appeals court said Monday. A panel of judges from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Philadelphia sided with a lower-court judge’s ruling after hearing oral arguments at which Habba was present on Oct. 20.

“It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place. Its efforts to elevate its preferred candidate for U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, to the role of Acting U.S. Attorney demonstrate the difficulties it has faced — yet the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deserve some clarity and stability,” the court wrote in a 32-page opinion.

It concluded: “We will affirm the District Court’s disqualification order.”

The ruling comes amid the push by Trump’s Republican administration to keep Habba as the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a powerful post charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law. It also comes after the judges questioned the government’s moves to keep Habba in place after her interim appointment expired and without her getting Senate confirmation.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/alina-habba-new-jersey-prosecutor-trump-5cb7573a91ac776e3914afd584e814bf

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Link to RULING (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca3.125818/gov.uscourts.ca3.125818.81.0.pdf

REFERENCES

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143424849
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143489910
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143499114
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143500069
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143500233
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143501596
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143502009
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143503381
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143503983
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143504134
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143504690
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143505804
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143508667
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143516618
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143550713
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143550768

Article updated.

Previous article/headline -

Former Trump lawyer Alina Habba disqualified as New Jersey prosecutor, US appeals court rules

Updated 9:32 AM EST, December 1, 2025


PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Alina Habba, whom the administration has maneuvered to keep in place as New Jersey top federal prosecutor, is disqualified from serving in the role, an appeal court said Monday.

A panel of judges from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Philadelphia sided with a lower court judge's ruling after hearing oral arguments at which Habba herself was present on Oct. 20.

"It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place. Its efforts to elevate its preferred candidate for U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, to the role of Acting U.S. Attorney demonstrate the difficulties it has faced -- yet the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney's Office deserve some clarity and stability," the court wrote in a 32-page opinion. It concluded: "We will affirm the District Court's disqualification order."

The ruling comes amid the push by President Donald Trump's Republican administration to keep Habba as the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a powerful post charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law. It also comes after the judges questioned the government's moves to keep Habba in place after her interim appointment expired and without her getting Senate confirmation.

Original article -

Updated 9:17 AM EST, December 1, 2025


PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The Trump administration's maneuvers to keep the president's former lawyer Alina Habba in place as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor were illegal and she is disqualified, a federal appeals court said Monday.

A panel of judges from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Philadelphia sided with a lower court judge's ruling after hearing oral arguments at which Habba herself was present on Oct. 20.

The ruling comes amid the push by President Donald Trump's Republican administration to keep Habba as the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a powerful post charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law. It also comes after the judges questioned the government's moves to keep Habba in place after her interim appointment expired and without her getting Senate confirmation.

Habba said after that hearing in a statement posted to X that she was fighting on behalf of other candidates to be federal prosecutors who have been denied a chance for a Senate hearing. Messages were left Monday seeking comment from the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey, Habba's personal staffer and the Justice Department.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Alina Habba remains DISQUALIFIED as U.S. Attorney as Third Circuit affirms

This is not good news for Halligan

Link to tweet

[mcar]

10. Does this void any cases she brought forward?

[NJCher]

2. Call the movers, Alina

Back to parking garage law.

Buh bye.

[Attilatheblond]

3. Foregone conclusion when she instistes on being 'pretty' stupid over being smart.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Appeals court upholds disqualification of Alina Habba as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor

The ruling further stymies the Trump administration’s use of unusual tactics meant to quickly put or keep largely unqualified U.S. attorneys in place without Senate confirmation.

Read "Appeals court upholds disqualification of Alina Habba as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor" on SmartNews: l.smartnews.com/p-6GX6rWX6/8...

— (@chitraraj.bsky.social) 2025-12-01T14:30:51.530Z

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/01/alina-habba-appeals-court-ruling-00671224

A panel of appeals court judges on Monday upheld the disqualification of Alina Habba, the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, rejecting President Donald Trump’s use of unconventional methods to install loyalists atop U.S. attorney offices across the country.

“It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place,” Judge D. Michael Fisher, an appointee of President George W. Bush, wrote in the 32-page opinion. “Its efforts to elevate its preferred candidate for U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, to the role of Acting U.S. Attorney demonstrate the difficulties it has faced — yet the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deserve some clarity and stability.”

The ruling further stymies the Trump administration’s use of unusual tactics meant to quickly put or keep largely unqualified U.S. attorneys in place without Senate confirmation. Defendants are also challenging the authority of U.S. attorneys in California, Nevada, upstate New York and Virginia.

The Trump administration could appeal Monday’s ruling to the Supreme Court. Spokespeople for the Trump administration and Habba didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

In August, a lower-court judge ruled that Habba is serving unlawfully, and judges have subsequently made the same determination regarding the Trump-picked prosecutors in Nevada and the Los Angeles-area. Last week, a judge disqualified top federal prosecutor Lindsey Halligan in the eastern district of Virginia and tossed the politically charged cases she brought against Trump’s political enemies: former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

[onenote]

5. Unanimous opinion of an Obama judge and two GW Bush judges

[orangecrush]

9. Good

[underpants]

6. Oh boy

[orangecrush]

8. ...

[USS_Dauntless]

18. Or Fox News.

[underpants]

19. Same same.

[orangecrush]

7. ...

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. Deadline Legal Blog-Appeals court upholds Alina Habba's disqualification as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor

The Supreme Court could have the last word on the subject that affects Trump-installed federal prosecutors around the country.

Appeals court upholds Alina Habba’s disqualification as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor. The Supreme Court could have the last word on the subject that affects Trump-installed federal prosecutors around the country. www.ms.now/deadline-whi...

— (@jwwcan.bsky.social) 2025-12-01T15:05:52.126Z

https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/alina-habba-disqualification-us-attorney-appeal

A federal district judge was correct to disqualify Alina Habba as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, an appellate panel ruled Monday, dealing the Trump administration its latest loss on an issue that’s pending in U.S. attorney’s offices around the country.

The Supreme Court could have the last word on the subject, which affects federal prosecutors installed by the administration who haven’t been confirmed by the Senate and whose tenures have been challenged as illegal by criminal defendants.

“It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place,” the panel observed in disapproving of the attempt to install Habba.

Another Trump-installed prosecutor whose tenure is in doubt is Lindsey Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia. She lacked prosecutorial experience and was placed in that office to secure indictments of Donald Trump’s political opponents over the objections of career prosecutors. Halligan, who brought charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, was recently deemed by another federal district judge to have been unlawfully appointed. The Trump administration said it will appeal that ruling......

The administration’s promised appeal of Halligan’s disqualification in Virginia would fall under a different federal circuit (the Fourth). When different federal circuits rule differently on an issue, that makes it more likely that the Supreme Court will step in to resolve a conflict if asked to do so. The legal issues surrounding Habba’s and Halligan’s appointments aren’t exactly the same but there is overlap. The appointment issue has also been litigated on the other side of the country in federal districts in California and Nevada, where judges have likewise disapproved of the administration’s attempts to bypass Senate approval of top federal prosecutors. Those western states fall under the Ninth Circuit.

Though the appellate ruling in Habba’s case came first, the administration may be even more eager to revive Halligan as the top federal prosecutor in Virginia. Unlike in the appeal in Habba’s case, the judge in Comey and James’ challenge not only said that Halligan was unlawfully serving but that the indictments she brought against those Trump targets must be dismissed as a result.

This will be fun to watch

[BumRushDaShow]

12. Potential next steps here -

(snip)

The Supreme Court could have the last word on the subject, which affects federal prosecutors installed by the administration who haven’t been confirmed by the Senate and whose tenures have been challenged as illegal by criminal defendants.

(snip)

The administration’s promised appeal of Halligan’s disqualification in Virginia would fall under a different federal circuit (the Fourth). When different federal circuits rule differently on an issue, that makes it more likely that the Supreme Court will step in to resolve a conflict if asked to do so.

Alito is assigned to the 3rd Circuit for emergency reviews and they might run to him while considering an en banc review (especially since the 3rd Circuit just got tipped to majority (R) with the confirmation of Emil Bove, making it 7(R) - 6(D) appointees, although I think when they do the en banc, they might have a mix of 13 current and senior judges, where it is 6(R) - 4(D) still there of the senior ones).

[FakeNoose]

13. Every one of her cases ... former cases that is ... should be thrown out

She had no standing when she brought those cases to court, and most of them were purely for Chump's spite against political enemies.

[TheRickles]

14. I never understood why Trump appointed her - she's not blonde!

[dalton99a]

15. It's the bra size

[marble falls]

16. March her out of office with her box of TACO chotskis

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

17. Big Donny prefers loyalty over competence.