Alina Habba on Sunday claimed the federal judges who rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to keep her in place as New Jersey‘s top attorney were colluding to prevent her return to the post.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann determined Habba had been unlawfully serving as U.S. attorney since July 1 and therefore could not continue overseeing prosecutions as the acting U.S. attorney.
The decision set back the administration’s disputed legal tactics to let Habba continue serving in an acting capacity, even after her 120-day interim appointment expired last month when a panel of New Jersey federal judges declined to keep her on.
Habba criticized the judges, including Brann, saying they don’t have the authority to choose a U.S. attorney.
“What they don’t understand is Article III judges do not pick the U.S. attorney for the state. The president, Pam Bondi, the attorney general — that’s who picks it,” she told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures.
Habba also suggested there was judiciary “collusion” in her case, teasing there will be evidence coming out about that soon.
“They had a collusion, a plan,” she said. “I’m aware of it, and the Department of Justice is aware of it. Soon enough, it will come out.”
The alleged collusion appears to be related to Department of Justice official Desiree Leigh Grace, who was tapped by the New Jersey judges to replace Habba until Attorney General Pam Bondi fired Grace. Prior to her termination, Habba’s replacement had served as a first assistant U.S. attorney in the New Jersey federal prosecutor’s office.
Grace was “very close” with the federal judges, according to Habba. Bartiromo noted Grace was a member of the wedding party for one of the judges, suggesting her brief appointment may have been “inappropriate” and “unethical” as Habba argued.
Bondi said the DOJ plans to appeal Brann’s decision, which the judge opted to pause in order to let the case proceed in a federal appeals court.
Habba was up for Senate confirmation before the New Jersey judicial panel passed on extending her interim tenure, but the upper chamber did not act on her nomination in time.
The process was held up in large part due to a bipartisan tradition on judicial nominees that Republican leadership on the Senate Judiciary Committee refused to change. The “blue slip” practice allows senators from the minority party to veto nominees for U.S. attorney and district court judges from their home state; both Democratic senators from New Jersey opposed her nomination.
Habba accused Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) of stalling her nomination by upholding the rule, which she says is getting in the way of President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“I would say to Sen. Tillis and Sen. Grassley: You are becoming part of the issue. You are becoming part of the antithesis of what we fought for four years,” she said. “It is not just about me. It is about … U.S. attorneys across the country that just want to do right by Americans that voted for President Trump and this administration.”