Effort to keep Alina Habba in post as acting New Jersey U.S. attorney sparks legal challenge [View all]

Source: CBS News

July 28, 2025 / 3:14 PM EDT


Washington — President Trump's attempt to keep Alina Habba, his former personal lawyer, as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor has prompted a legal challenge, as a man facing drug and gun charges has alleged that she holds the office unlawfully. A lawyer for the man, Julien Giraud Jr., asked a federal judge Sunday to toss the indictment or bar Habba or any assistants acting under her authority from exercising prosecutorial powers in the case.

He argues that Habba's appointment Thursday to serve as the acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey violates the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, and said that a district court's decision appointing her then-deputy, Desiree Leigh Grace, to temporarily fill the role as the state's top prosecutor is legally controlling. Giraud is "facing an imminent criminal trial proceeding under questionable legal authority," under Habba, his attorney Thomas Mirigliano wrote in the motion.

Mirigliano argued that Habba's reappointment after her nomination to become New Jersey's U.S. attorney is also unconstitutional. Politico first reported the request stemming from Habba's position. "By circumventing the constitutionally mandated appointment procedures, and encroaching upon judicial powers explicitly granted by statute, the executive branch has exceeded its lawful authority," he wrote, adding that allowing the prosecution of his client to proceed under the current landscape "would endorse an unconstitutional executive usurpation of judicial authority."

The filing from Giraud is the latest twist in Habba's tenure as U.S. attorney for New Jersey, which came to a head last week as she neared the end of her limited term serving temporarily in the role. Federal law restricted Habba's time in the post to 120 days, unless the federal district court in the state extended her tenure or she won Senate confirmation. But New Jersey's two senators, Democrats Cory Booker and Andy Kim, opposed her nomination, making it highly unlikely it would advance through the upper chamber.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alina-habba-new-jersey-us-attorney-legal-challenge/