President Donald Trump has officially withdrawn the nomination of Alina Habba, his former defense attorney, to serve as U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a Justice Department official confirmed Thursday. This move now allows her to assume the role in an acting capacity, circumventing a legal provision that restricts acting appointments once a nomination is formally submitted to the Senate.
The decision follows a contentious leadership standoff after a federal district court declined to maintain Habba in the role, appointing her deputy, Desiree Leigh Grace, as interim U.S. attorney instead. That appointment, triggered by the expiration of Habba’s 120-day interim term, sparked immediate backlash from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who denounced the court’s action.
“This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the president’s core Article II powers,” Bondi posted on social media.
The question of who currently holds the top federal prosecutorial post in New Jersey remains complicated. A court order from Chief Judge Renée Bumb confirmed Grace’s appointment effective Tuesday or upon the expiration of Habba’s term. Yet, Habba asserted on X, “I am now the Acting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey,” signaling her intent to remain in the position.
With Trump’s nomination of Habba now rescinded, a legal hurdle is removed: federal law bars a person from serving as acting U.S. attorney if their nomination is pending before the Senate. This clears the way for Habba to serve in an acting capacity for up to 210 days, based on when the vacancy was created.
Trump had initially named Habba interim U.S. attorney on March 24, which set her term to expire by July 22. However, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated her interim tenure ends Friday. Meanwhile, Bondi and other Justice Department leaders have openly accused the New Jersey judiciary of injecting politics into the matter by refusing to keep Habba in place.
Despite the nomination setback, Trump remains supportive.
“President Trump continues to have full confidence in Alina Habba and her commitment to serve the people of New Jersey,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields told CBS News.
Background and Legal Debate
Alina Habba served as a defense lawyer for Trump during several high-profile civil proceedings in New York and joined the White House counsel’s office following his re-election. In March, she was named interim U.S. attorney in her home state, a position capped at 120 days under federal law.
Her qualifications have been questioned due to her lack of prior experience as a prosecutor. However, attorney Armen Morian, who worked alongside her in a 2023 New York fraud case involving Trump and his company, defended her capability.
“I think she’s eminently qualified to be U.S. attorney, and I think she’s doing a fine job of it,” he said.
He added,
“President Trump is a very unconventional figure, and he forces us… to reconsider a lot of the assumptions we make. Sometimes it’s very useful to put somebody into an office who has shown to you that she has sufficient judgment and will do well in the position.”
Still, Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both from New Jersey, opposed her nomination. Under the Senate Judiciary Committee’s “blue slip” policy, a nomination will not proceed without support from both home-state senators.
With the deadline for Habba’s term approaching, the U.S. District Court in New Jersey exercised its statutory authority to appoint Grace as interim U.S. attorney. Federal law allows courts to make such appointments when a 120-day interim term expires without a Senate-confirmed replacement.
“The reason why you have this 120-day deadline followed by judicial appointments was so that the president is incentivized to get someone confirmed because after 120 days, you lose the authority within the executive branch to control who is the U.S. attorney,” explained Thomas Berry, a constitutional law scholar at the Cato Institute.
Court appointments to the role are rare but not unprecedented. Judges in New Mexico appointed Gregory Fouratt in 2008. During Trump’s first term, similar appointments were made in New Jersey and Manhattan when terms were due to expire.
Can the Executive Override the Court?
A central legal question is whether Bondi has the authority to remove a court-appointed U.S. attorney. A 1979 Justice Department opinion — though nonbinding — stated that only the president can remove such appointees under Article II powers, and that the attorney general lacks that specific authority.
Still, Bondi acted. Blanche, the deputy attorney general, stated Grace was removed “pursuant to the president’s authority.”
“This backroom vote will not override the authority of the Chief Executive,” he posted on social media.
Berry noted there’s limited judicial precedent on this issue, particularly when executive and judicial branches disagree.
Habba’s New Path as Acting U.S. Attorney
Until Trump’s withdrawal of her nomination, Habba was barred under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act from serving as acting U.S. attorney. Now, after resigning as interim U.S. attorney and being appointed by Bondi as first assistant, she qualifies to serve in an acting capacity.
The 1998 Vacancies Act, which Trump used frequently in his first term, defines three eligible categories for acting roles: the “first assistant,” a Senate-confirmed official, or a senior agency employee with requisite tenure. Grace, as Habba’s former deputy, fit the first category — but her appointment was cut short by Bondi’s removal order.
Trump appears to be using a workaround similar to the one used in Albany, where John Sarcone was named interim U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, only for the court to reject the appointment. Bondi subsequently appointed Sarcone as a “special attorney to the attorney general,” giving him equivalent authority. He was also named first assistant, effectively keeping him in charge.
Berry said the administration is exploiting a legal gap.
“Subdelegation is so easy to do throughout the executive branch,” he noted. “This exact same maneuver is done all the time for all sorts of offices.”
What About Grace?
In a LinkedIn post, Grace confirmed she is no longer the No. 2 in the New Jersey office but emphasized her readiness to serve based on the court’s appointment.
“It will forever be the greatest honor that they selected me on merit, and I’m prepared to follow that Order and begin to serve in accordance with the law,” she wrote.
Grace, a well-regarded figure in New Jersey’s law enforcement circles, received praise in response to her post.
“Desiree Grace, anyone who knows you knows the heart, integrity, and commitment you bring to the job. You have definitely made a difference,” wrote Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who previously served as Newark’s public safety director.
