Federal prosecutors in New Jersey are reportedly desperate to be free of President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and partisan sidekick, Alina Habba.
Days after she was announced as the president’s pick to serve as the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Habba vowed to use the traditionally independent and non-partisan role to “turn New Jersey red.”
Habba, 41, had served as Trump’s personal attorney and adviser since 2021, when many law firms were avoiding him over election denials and his role in the January 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol.
Although some prosecutors had hoped that Habba was just putting on a media show for Trump and his MAGA base, she has infuriated staffers by apparently following through on her March promise to bring partisan politics to the role, according to a report in The New York Times.
In just a few months, Habba has destroyed morale by prosecuting Democratic lawmakers, offering special treatment to a repeat felon with ties to Republican lawmakers, killing the office’s longest-running prosecution just days before it was set to go to trial, and disbanding the office’s Civil Rights Division, 16 sources told the Times.
Many prosecutors are looking for new jobs even as Habba desperately tries to hang on to her appointment, which could end as early as this week.
Trump has nominated her to the position permanently, but she may not survive the Senate confirmation process, according to the Times. New Jersey’s Democratic senators have accused her of degrading the U.S. attorney’s office with her political prosecutions.
It also probably doesn’t help that before joining the U.S. attorney’s office, she drooled over accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate and insulted veterans who were caught up in Elon Musk’s mass firings earlier this year.
Habba’s press office declined to comment to the Times. The Daily Beast has also reached out.
The state’s federal district judges could vote to extend her temporary tenure until the Senate confirms a nominee, but Habba—who hung three framed pictures of herself in a conference room named for Frederick B. Lacey, the legendary New Jersey crime fighter—admitted during a staff meeting that the scenario was not likely.
U.S. Magistrate Judge André Espinosa ripped into one of her attorneys in May after Habba announced that she was prosecuting Newark Mayor Ras Baraka in connection with a confrontation between lawmakers, protesters, and police at a federal immigration center.
Habba then decided to drop those charges and bring a new indictment against Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver, leading Espinosa to reprimand Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Demanovich for a “hasty arrest” and an “embarrassing retraction of charges.”
The incident was just one example of how members of the Trump administration have been warring with federal judges.
Demanovich has since left his job, and Habba has been meeting with her prosecutors one-on-one, trying to convince them that if she’s allowed to stay, she will finally be able to bring some stability to the office, according to the Times.
During a staff meeting last week, Habba repeated that message even as she gave her office an emotional, pre-emptive farewell, the Times reported.
