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Alina Habba, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and the administration’s pick for U.S. attorney in New Jersey, resigned Monday after a federal appeals court ruled she had been serving in the role unlawfully.
In a statement posted on social media, Habba blasted the court’s decision as politically driven but said she was stepping down “to protect the stability and integrity” of the office.
“But do not mistake compliance for surrender,” she wrote, adding that the administration would continue its appeal. “This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.”
Habba said she will remain at the Justice Department as a senior adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
She was appointed in March to a temporary term overseeing federal criminal and civil enforcement in New Jersey. New Jersey’s two Democratic senators indicated they would block her nomination in the Senate. When her interim term expired in July, a panel of judges appointed one of her deputies to the post instead, prompting Bondi to fire the replacement and accuse courts of acting as “politically minded judges.”
A lower court then ruled Habba was unlawfully serving in the position, setting off months of uncertainty inside the U.S. Attorney’s Office and delaying proceedings in federal courts across the state.
Earlier this month, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disqualified her from continuing in the role, writing that “the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deserve some clarity and stability.”
Habba included a lengthy farewell message in her resignation announcement on X, highlighting accomplishments such as dropping crime rates and counterterrorism prosecutions during her tenure. “Camden had its first murder-free summer in 50 years,” she wrote. She also accused judges and Democratic senators of obstructing her work and undermining President Trump.
“As a result of the Third Circuit’s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey,” she wrote, adding that her “fight will now stretch across the country.”
“You can take the girl out of New Jersey,” she said, “but you cannot take New Jersey out of the girl.”
