A federal judge on Thursday blocked Alina Habba from serving as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, ruling that she hasn’t had legal authority to act in the role for much of the summer.
U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann’s ruling comes just weeks after a panel of judges in New Jersey selected her replacement when her temporary term as “interim U.S. attorney” ended — only to be ignored by the White House, which put her right back in place as a “special attorney.”
Brann, the chief judge of Pennsylvania’s middle district, began his 77-page order by calling out the Trump administration for bending the rules to keep her in place.
Brann wrote that “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.”
“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 wrote.
Habba’s appointment and her qualifications have drawn intense scrutiny by judges, defense lawyers and legal ethics scholars. Last month, NOTUS exclusively reported that Habba’s professional credentials are presently at risk, as she has been under investigation for over a year by the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Office of Attorney Ethics.
Investigators are looking into allegations that she mistreated an employee at Trump’s Bedminster golf club seeking to sue over sexual harassment, becoming her lawyer only to convince her to accept a hush-money deal for a paltry sum — all to ingratiate herself with Trump.
Brann’s ruling now threatens to upend dozens of indictments and cast doubt on hundreds of legal filings in the past 51 days, with the judge concluding that Habba had been acting “without lawful authority since July 1, 2025.” Any indictments she signed since then, according to the judge, are “presumptively defective.”
“Her actions since that point may be declared void,” Brann wrote, rejecting her approval of an indictment of a man accused of running a real estate Ponzi scheme — but not necessarily dismissing the case outright.
“And 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,” he wrote.
Going even further to ensure that Habba can’t simply ignore the ruling, the judge issued a warning that extends to career federal prosecutors in New Jersey who continue to operate under Habba’s command in a handful of cases involving the suspected fraudster and a pair of accused drug dealers.
“Any assistant United States attorney who prosecutes the Girauds or Mr. Pina under the supervision or authority of Ms. Habba in violation of my order is similarly subject to disqualification,” the judge wrote.
Habba did not immediately respond to texts sent Thursday afternoon. The New Jersey federal prosecutor’s office also did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
While the judge’s order targets Habba specifically, it also serves as a warning for the White House that it cannot keep politically appointed federal prosecutors in place by gaming the process or the calendar, a tactic that the Trump administration has increasingly adopted as it continues to appoint lawyers who are unable to pass a confirmation vote in the Senate — as in Habba’s case.
Brann ruled that Congress only allows a president to keep an interim U.S. attorney in place for 120 days, meaning that a president can’t simply terminate someone’s appointment on the last day and give the person another three-month period in office.
That’s why the judge concluded Habba’s appointment ended weeks before even New Jersey’s federal judiciary thought it did.
Although the Trump administration initially gave the interim U.S. attorney role on March 3 to John Giordano, a Philadelphia attorney who worked on Trump’s 2016 transition team, the White House handed it over to Habba just a few weeks later on March 28. In his ruling, Brann reasoned that “the 120-day clock begins running when the Attorney General first invokes section 546(a) and makes an appointment,” meaning that Habba’s term technically ended when Giordano’s term would have come to a close.
The judge completely disregarded what he called the Trump’s administration’s “multi-step maneuver to keep her in the United States Attorney role.” He called out the way the White House, upon facing resistance from New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, withdrew her nomination to be the full U.S. attorney — which was followed by a confusing and quick series of events. Habba resigned from her position as the interim prosecutor, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed her as a “special attorney to the attorney general,” Habba was officially made the No. 2 at the office, then that position was elevated as the default leader.
Brann’s ruling could have implications for other Department of Justice local district offices across the country. John A. Sarcone III, for example, is currently the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, because he too faced the end of his temporary term only to be designated his own No. 2 at the office, then elevated as the leader by default.