Alina Habba, a former lawyer to President Donald Trump who’s faced a storm of opposition after the president installed her as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, said on Monday that she was resigning after a federal appeals court found her appointment was unlawful and disqualified her from overseeing cases.
Habba, an ally of the president, said in a statement she posted to X (formerly Twitter) that her resignation as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey was “to protect the stability and the integrity of the office.” Habba, a Summit native, has faced legal challenges to her appointment since she was appointed by the president in March. New Jersey’s Democratic senators Corey Booker and Andy Kim said they would oppose her confirmation in the U.S. Senate.
A three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the Trump administration violated a federal appointments law in naming Habba acting U.S. attorney after judges on New Jersey’s federal District Court ruled against extending her appointment.
“But do not mistake compliance for surrender,” Habba said in the post on X on Monday. Habba describes herself on her personal X account as “Mom, Wife, Patriot & Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.” Her post closed with a defiant “Make no mistake, you can take the girl out of New Jersey, but you can’t take New Jersey out of the girl.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a separate post on X that she had accepted Habba’s resignation but blamed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit for the move, saying the ruling “has made it untenable for her to effectively run her office.”
Habba said she would become a senior adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi. The Justice Department named three lawyers to take over leadership of the office in New Jersey.
Bondi said Habba will work as a senior adviser to the attorney general for U.S. attorneys and would return to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey if the Justice Department wins an appeal to the Supreme Court. An appeals filing has not been made yet.
This past summer, Habba’s position as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey was questioned by three criminal defendants who challenged the legality of her appointment as acting U.S. attorney.
A federal district judge had ruled in August that Habba had been serving without lawful authority since the beginning of July. Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld that decision disqualifying Habba.
A critique of Habba was that she lacked federal court experience and no experience as a prosecutor. After starting private practice in 2011, she started her own firm in 2020. That was the same year she met Trump. Habba became one of the president’s most high-profile defenders during the four years he was out of power.
