Trio of Habba successors are unlawfully leading NJ US Attorney's office, judge rules

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

03/09/26 4:20 PM ET


The trio of officials tapped to succeed Alina Habba by splitting the role of New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor are leading the office unlawfully, a federal judge ruled Monday, slamming the Trump administration for seeking to skirt congressional approval once again. U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann rejected the government’s assertion that Congress gave Attorney General Pam Bondi the authority to skip over Senate confirmation and hand-pick U.S. attorneys.

He called it “crystal clear and not capable of factual dispute” that the government’s intent is to act “unilaterally” to fill the role. The judge previously disqualified Habba, the former U.S. attorney for New Jersey, after finding that her tenure turned unlawful when she remained in the role after her 120-day interim term expired, despite the “novel series of legal and personnel moves” the administration took to keep her in the job.

“The work of the USAO-NJ is simply too important to continue throwing novel leadership plans at the wall to see what will stick,” the judge wrote Monday in a 130-page ruling. “Compromise is part of the system, and I implore the Government to take that approach. “If it does not, it is on notice that a third attempt at unilateral office filling will be met with extremely strict scrutiny, and any deficiency in its method will be taken as bad faith and result in dismissal of cases at any stage,” he said.

Brann paused his decision booting the three officials, whom he dubbed the “triumvirate,” pending appeal over the “novelty” of the legal questions before him. However, he warned the Trump administration against leaving them in their roles. “If the Government chooses to leave the triumvirate in place, it does so at its own risk,” the judge said.

Read more: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5775565-trump-trio-officials-ruled-unlawful/

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Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.njd.540663/gov.uscourts.njd.540663.317.0_2.pdf

[maxsolomon]

1. They will continue until there are consequences.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann is going to need backup from his full Court to enforce any.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. Trio named to replace Alina Habba as U.S. attorney is also serving illegally, judge says

The decision, which is on hold pending a possible appeal, upended the leadership in New Jersey’s U.S. attorney’s office for the second time in months.

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/09/new-jersey-us-attorney

A federal judge upended the leadership of New Jersey’s U.S. attorney’s office again Monday, ruling for the second time in less than a year that the Trump administration had illegally sought to bypass Congress and install its own picks to head the prominent prosecutorial outpost.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann said that a trio of Justice Department lawyers who have been leading the office since late last year had been unlawfully serving in their positions. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed them after Brann disqualified Alina Habba, President Donald Trump’s previous choice for U.S. attorney in the state, in August amid similar questions over the legality of her appointment.

“One year into this administration, it is plain that President Trump and his top aides have chafed at the limits of their power set forth by the law and the Constitution,” Brann wrote, though he immediately stayed his ruling, allowing the administration a chance to appeal.

Still, his sternly worded 130-page opinion ended with a warning to the government that if it chose to leave that triumvirate in place, “it does so at its own risk.” He added that any further attempts to illegally appoint new leadership to the office would “result in dismissals of pending cases.”.....

Across the country, courts have disqualified a half-dozen of Trump’s picks to lead U.S. attorney’s offices on an interim or acting basis, finding that each had served well beyond the statutorily defined limits of their temporary appointments or were never legally appointed in the first place.

In New Jersey, Virginia and New York, federal judges have named their own replacements only for the Justice Department to swiftly fire those picks — in some cases via social media posts, which Brann described as unnecessarily “combative.”

The law is clear. US Attorneys need to be confirmed by the Senate. trump, Bondi, Habba and company do not want to comply with the law. I am glad that the courts are standing up to these assholes

[FakeNoose]

3. Thank you Judge Matthew Brann

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_W._Brann