Trump fired court-appointed Habba replacement, records show

Source: Politico

07/29/2025 01:47 PM EDT


President Donald Trump moved to fire the career federal prosecutor New Jersey judges picked to be acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, according to court records filed Tuesday.

The Department of Justice revealed Trump’s decision in an email filed with a federal judge in Pennsylvania, who is preparing to weigh in on an escalating fight between the Trump administration and the federal bench in New Jersey.

The filing underscores Trump’s direct involvement in a bid to keep his former personal attorney, Alina Habba, as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, despite the expiration last week of her 120-day tenure as interim U.S. attorney and New Jersey judges selecting prosecutor Desiree Leigh Grace to serve in Habba’s place. Trump recently withdrew Habba’s nomination to the Senate for the post, part of an unusual maneuver to bypass the judges’ selection and keep Habba in the role on a longer-term but still temporary basis.

Trump’s workaround is now creating uncertainty across the federal criminal justice system in New Jersey.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/29/new-jersey-us-attorney-alina-habba-donald-trump-00481846

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Link to FILING (PDF viewer) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26035260-108-9/

Link to FILING (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26035260/108-9.pdf

Apparently Bondi didn't do the termination (through DOJ), but 45 did it (through the OPP within the WH).