Famed parking garage lawyer Alina Habba spent her tenure as the quasi-U.S. Attorney for New Jersey stoking Epstein file rumors and pushing political prosecutions against Democrats inspecting ICE facilities. Now, mercifully, that tenure should be coming to a close.
Habba sprung from her cage on Highway 9 to assume the role through an appointment by Pam Bondi. Appointments made by the Attorney General to serve as a U.S. Attorney are limited to 120 days, which for Habba will expire next week. Trump nominated his bumbling fixer to a full term in the post, but that nomination stalled in the Senate with New Jersey’s senators opposing the pick and Senate Republicans not caring enough about Habba that they’ve chosen to pretend they care about this norm.
That means Habba will be out of a job next week unless the state’s federal judges decide to appoint her, and they reportedly have zilch interest in having a cable news talking head run the office, preferring instead to pick First Assistant U.S. Attorney Desiree Grace and former U.S. District Court Judge Noel Lawrence Hillman. If the courts prefer to let Grace be elevated in the event of Habba’s departure she could serve for up to 210 days. If the courts make a designated appointment it runs until the position is filled. [UPDATE: This was corrected to note that the time limit applies to Grace as First Assistant only]
Signs suggest Habba might have embraced her fate in a staff meeting yesterday, with the New Jersey Globe reporting that someone with direct knowledge of the meeting claimed “Habba had said she expected to depart next week.” That said, another tipster told the Globe that this “interpretation was mischaracterized,” and Habba really said that she didn’t know what would happen but hoped to stay.
An inability to put forward a clear, understandable plan? NOT OUR ALINA!
If this is the end of Thunder Road for Habba’s bid to run New Jersey justice, maybe she can head up Donald Trump’s new threatened lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch.
Just kidding… they’re going to make one of the Biglaw capitulators do that for free.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.