Alina Habba Stepping Down as U.S. Attorney After Appeals Court Upholds Disqualification — But May Still Appeal

Pool File via AP

Alina Habba announced Monday that she was stepping down from her position as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey after a federal appeals court upheld a district court ruling disqualifying her, saying she will now serve as an adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

President Donald Trump appointed Habba to the position of New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor in March after she had represented him and his super PAC for several years.

In August, Judge Matthew S. Brann, an Obama appointee with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania (specially presiding for the New Jersey court), ruled Habba was not “lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of
the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey.”

“The Executive branch has perpetuated Alina Habba’s appointment to act as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey through a novel series of legal and personnel moves,” wrote Brann, finding that Habba “has exercised the functions and
duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey without lawful authority since July 1, 2025,” and as a result, “[h]er actions since that point may be declared void…[a]nd because she is not currently qualified to exercise the functions and duties of the office in an acting capacity, she must be disqualified from participating in any ongoing cases.”

Brann’s ruling was upheld at the beginning of this month by a unanimous three-judge panel (two Bush appointees and one Biden appointee) on Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Habba announced she had “decided to step down in my role as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey” as a result of the Third Circuit ruling “and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love.”

“[D]o not mistake compliance for surrender,” Habba added. “This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.”

It seems from Habba’s statement she may still attempt further appeals; she wrote that she “will continue to serve the Department of Justice as the Senior Advisor” to Bondi “[a]s we wait for further review of the [court’s] ruling.”

A transcript of Habba’s full statement:

STATEMENT FROM ALINA HABBA, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY AND SPECIAL ATTORNEY TO THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL

For the past five years, l’ve fought for justice on behalf of the American people, and in my tenure under our great Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, we made New Jersey safer. Camden had its first murder-free summer in 50 years. We drove down crime, took violent offenders off the streets, caught terrorists, and put away child predators.

While I was focused on delivering real results, judges in my state took advantage of a flawed blue slip tradition and became weapons for the politicized left. For months, these judges stopped conducting trials and entering sentences, leaving violent criminals on the streets. They joined New Jersey senators, who care more about fighting President Trump than the well being of residents which they serve.

For four years, I fought against lawfare aimed at President Trump and against politics infecting our justice system. What these obstructionists misunderstood is that my loyalty is not to politics, a title, or a ZIP code. It is to this great country.

As a result of the Third Circuit’s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. But do not mistake compliance for surrender. This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.

My fight will now stretch across the country. As we wait for further review of the courts ruling, I will continue to serve the Department of Justice as the Senior Advisor to the Attorney General for U.S. Attorneys.

Make no mistake, you can take the girl out of New Jersey, but you cannot take New Jersey out of the girl.

-DECEMBER 8, 2025-

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