A federal appeal court on Monday determined that Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer to US President Donald Trump, was unlawfully appointed as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey and disqualified her from supervising cases, in a rebuke to the Trump administration.
The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals was the latest blow to Trump and his Justice Department as they seek to install loyalists to oversee key US Attorney’s offices around the country.
The 3rd Circuit upheld US District Judge Matthew Brann’s ruling in August that the Trump administration violated a federal appointments law in naming Habba as acting US Attorney in New Jersey.
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“It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place. Its efforts to elevate its preferred candidate for US Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, to the role of Acting US Attorney demonstrate the difficulties it has faced – yet the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the US Attorney’s Office deserve some clarity and stability,” the court wrote in a 32-page opinion.
It concluded: “We will affirm the District Court’s disqualification order.”
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The ruling comes amid the push by Trump’s Republican administration to keep Habba as the acting US attorney for New Jersey, a powerful post charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law.