The Justice Department said it will “immediately appeal” a federal judge’s ruling that President Donald Trump’s appointment of Alina Habba as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey was not made “lawfully.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi made the announcement on X immediately following the ruling.
“We will immediately appeal. @USAttyHabba is doing incredible work in New Jersey — and we will protect her position from activist judicial attacks,” she wrote.
We will immediately appeal. @USAttyHabba is doing incredible work in New Jersey — and we will protect her position from activist judicial attacks.https://t.co/BSBlYPcGy6
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) August 21, 2025
U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann, appointed by President Obama, issued his ruling after two criminal defendants in New Jersey challenged Habba’s appointment in court, claiming it was unconstitutional.
“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,” he wrote.
“Faced with the question of whether Ms. Habba is lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not,” he continued. “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.”
Habba, whom President Donald Trump named as counselor to the president in December before elevating her to acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey in March, was removed from that role in July when district court judges voted to replace her with her top deputy at the end of her 120-day interim period.
The Justice Department dismissed her replacement, Desiree Grace, just hours after the judges selected her.
Trump formally nominated Habba in July for a full four-year term, but her path to confirmation remains blocked. New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, have said they will not support her, effectively stalling the nomination.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has also declined to advance her nomination without the required “blue slips” from Booker and Kim, a Senate tradition that allows home-state senators to weigh in on judicial and U.S. attorney appointments. The stalemate has drawn sharp criticism from both Habba and Trump.
“Chuck Grassley, who I got re-elected to the U.S. Senate when he was down, by a lot, in the Great State of Iowa, could solve the ‘Blue Slip’ problem we are having with respect to the appointment of Highly Qualified Judges and U.S. Attorneys, with a mere flick of the pen,” Trump wrote in a July Truth Social post.
Habba added that Grassley is doing a “disservice” by holding up her confirmation process in a Thursday interview with Fox News.
🚨 BREAKING: Acting US Attorney Alina Habba just CALLED OUT Chuck Grassley for working to BLOCK her confirmation in the Senate
WHAT ARE YOU DOING, @ChuckGrassley?
Why are you siding with the Democrats?!
President Trump and WE THE PEOPLE want @AlinaHabba as US Attorney for New… pic.twitter.com/AiErQvvAPT
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 22, 2025
“No. 1, I was the nominee to become the U.S. attorney. And [Democratic New Jersey Sens.] Cory Booker and Andy Kim — who I have never, to this day, spoken to in my life, despite my attempts to meet them — have truly, truly done us a disservice,” she said during an appearance on “Hannity.”
“And frankly, same with Sen. Grassley by holding up a traditional blue slip, not a law, and not allowing a lot of the president’s picks to go through and be voted on by Senate,” she added. “I didn’t even get to that point.”
Habba also called Brann’s decision “disturbing” but said she will continue to fight.
“I am the pick of the president, I am the pick of Pam Bondi, our attorney general, and I will serve this country like I have for the last several years, in any capacity,” she said.
