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Trump outsmarts leftist judges in scheme to boot Alina Habba with slick move, now she’s top prosecutor

July 25, 2025 | | Print Article

An attempt by a group of judges to stop President Donald Trump from appointing Alina Habba as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor has failed thanks to a clever, last-minute move by the president.

Habba, Trump’s former lawyer, was appointed interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey by the president in March for a term meant to last 120 days, meaning up until Friday, July 25th.

But federal law says that if the Senate doesn’t confirm a permanent U.S. attorney within 120 days of an interim U.S. attorney being in office, then district court judges may appoint a permanent replacement.

In this case, the Senate never confirmed Habba because of the Democrats.

“Habba, Trump’s onetime personal attorney, had been blocked from receiving a Senate confirmation hearing by some Democrats in the upper chamber,” the New York Post notes.

And so she sought to bypass the process by petitioning the federal judges in the U.S. District Court for New Jersey to make her interim post permanent, but the judges refused and instead decided to replace her with her underling, interim First Assistant Desiree Leigh Grace.

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Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk has accused Grace of having maliciously colluded “with [the court’s] Obama-era judges in order to get rid of Habba.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has also been implicated in this scheme:

“The so-called U.S. Attorney in NJ maliciously indicted Congresswoman LaMonica McIver for doing her job,” he wrote in a tweet last week, referencing Habba’s recent prosecution of McIver.

“Alina Habba is a woefully unqualified political hack who has to go. She must be rejected by the Federal District Court judges who are considering whether to retain her,” he added.

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The Trump administration wasn’t pleased.

“The district court judges in NJ are trying to force out (Habba) before her term expires at 11:59 PM Friday,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche tweeted. “Their rush reveals what this was always about: a left-wing agenda, not the rule of law.”

“When judges act like activists, they undermine confidence in our justice system. Alina is President Trump’s choice to lead — and no partisan bench can override that,” he added.

The administration immediately responded to the judges’ decision by going over their heads and firing Grace.

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Trump, meanwhile, withdrew Habba’s U.S. Attorney nomination and instead appointed her First Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Here’s where the trick took place: According to the Vacancies Reform Act (5 U.S.C. § 3345), if and when the position of U.S. Attorney becomes vacant, the First Assistant automatically becomes U.S. Attorney.

And so by appointing Habba as First Assistant, Trump effectively made her U.S. Attorney. Voila!

Habba celebrated the move with a scorching tweet.

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“Donald J. Trump is the 47th President,” she tweeted. “Pam Bondi is the Attorney General. And I am now the Acting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. I don’t cower to pressure. I don’t answer to politics. This is a fight for justice. And I’m all in.”

Look:

Vivek Saxena
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