DOJ defends Alina Habba's unusual appointment before skeptical Third Circuit

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Courthouse News

DOJ defends Alina Habba’s unusual appointment before skeptical Third Circuit

Government attorneys tried to defend Habba’s appointment as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, which a lower court deemed unlawful in August.

ERIK UEBELACKER / October 20, 2025


Alina Habba, a former defense lawyer for President Donald Trump who has been named interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, walks toward the microphones to speak to members of the media, Monday, March 24, 2025, outside the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

(CN) — A Trump administration lawyer on Monday defended the unusual appointment of Alina Habba as the U.S. attorney in the District of New Jersey, telling a federal appellate court that the maneuver was “consistent with longstanding practice.” ... Justice Department attorney Henry Whitaker made the claim during lengthy oral arguments in the Third Circuit, where the government is trying to overturn a lower court’s finding that Habba’s appointment was unlawful.

“I didn’t think you’d say that,” U.S. Circuit Judge D. Brooks Smith said in response to Whitaker’s consistency argument, before going on to recount the unique legal maneuver the Justice Department used to keep Habba in power.

After Habba was voted out of her top prosecutor role by the district’s judges, the Trump administration withdrew Habba’s nomination for U.S. attorney, fired the replacement approved by the judges, then appointed Habba as the airst assistant U.S. attorney for New Jersey. With the U.S. attorney job technically vacant at the time, Habba was automatically appointed back to the post from which she was just booted.

“Can you come up with an example of any time that such a concatenation of events has occurred with respect to the appointment of a United States attorney?” Smith, a George W. Bush appointee, posed. ... “Well, I guess I cannot,” Whitaker replied.

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Read more: https://courthousenews.com/doj-defends-alina-habbas-unusual-appointment-before-skeptical-third-circuit/

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Reposted by Popehat Or Danger of Popehat
https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social

New: A DOJ lawyer claimed Alina Habba's appointment was "consistent with longstanding practice."

But a Third Circuit judge asked him to name another time a U.S. attorney was seated this way.

"Well, I guess I cannot," the lawyer said.

— Erik Uebelacker (@uebey.bsky.social) 2025-10-20T18:46:04.172Z

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Erik Uebelacker
‪@uebey.bsky.social‬

Follow
New: A DOJ lawyer claimed Alina Habba's appointment was "consistent with longstanding practice."

But a Third Circuit judge asked him to name another time a U.S. attorney was seated this way.

"Well, I guess I cannot," the lawyer said.

DOJ defends Alina Habba’s unusual appointment before skeptical Third Circuit
Government attorneys tried to defend Habba’s appointment as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, which a lower court deemed unlawful in August.
www.courthousenews.com
October 20, 2025 at 2:46 PM
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https://www.courthousenews.com/doj-defends-alina-habbas-unusual-appointment-before-skeptical-third-circuit/

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Comey has raised this issue in his motion to dismiss

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/10/20/comey-prosecution-trump-vindictive/

In a second motion Monday, defense lawyers also asked Nachmanoff to dismiss the case on grounds that Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor Trump hand-selected to oversee it, was appointed in violation of laws governing how long interim U.S. attorneys can serve.

Trump installed Halligan as the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia last month after he and others pressured her predecessor, Trump-appointee Erik S. Siebert, to resign in part over his conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to move forward with the case against Comey.

Because Siebert had already served a full 120-day term as interim U.S. attorney before his ouster, the Trump administration could not legally appoint another interim appointee to succeed him, Comey’s attorneys argued. Under the law, they argued, it was up to the judges of the Eastern District of Virginia, not the Trump administration, to select a new temporary appointee until the Senate voted to approve a presidential nominee to permanently fill the position.