Noticias

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has sided with a pair of defendants who challenged Alina Habba’s authority to serve as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey – a blow to President Donald Trump’s administration, which had made a series of complicated legal maneuvers to keep Habba in office.

Middle District of Pennsylvania Chief Judge Matthew Brann wrote in his ruling today that Habba was appointed to her office improperly, and cannot continue prosecuting the two men who challenged her authority or any other defendants in the District of New Jersey.

“After reviewing several issues of first impression, the Court concludes that Ms. Habba has exercised the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey without lawful authority since July 1, 2025,” Brann wrote. “And because she is not currently qualified to exercise the functions and duties of the office in an acting capacity, she must be disqualified from participating in any ongoing cases.”

The ruling, which has nationwide implications for the selection of U.S. Attorneys and the separation of powers, is likely to be appealed to the Third Circuit. An appeal would be heard by a three-judge panel on the closely divided circuit, which includes New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

Habba, Trump’s former personal lawyer and a firebrand conservative, was first appointed as interim U.S. Attorney on either March 24 or March 28 – her exact start date is contested – to replace John Giordano, a different interim U.S. Attorney Trump had chosen a few weeks earlier. As interim U.S. Attorney, Habba had the full powers of the U.S. Attorney’s office at her disposal, but her tenure was limited to 120 days unless she could win confirmation by the U.S. Senate or get her term extended by New Jersey’s federal District Court judges.

Habba’s nomination was submitted to the Senate on July 1, but it never came up for a vote, likely in part because of vociferous objections from New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim. And on July 22, right as Habba’s term was expiring, New Jersey’s judges voted not to retain her past her 120-day tenure and instead appointed First Assistant U.S. Attorney Desiree Grace to replace her.

(The New Jersey District Court took a similar vote during Trump’s first term in April, after interim U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito’s 120-day term ran out without confirmation from the Senate, but the result was the opposite: they chose to affirm Trump’s choice and retain Carpenito, and Carpenito served for the rest of Trump’s first term with little drama.)

After the vote to install Grace, however, Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi maintained that they – not the judiciary – had ultimate authority over U.S. Attorney picks, and executed a series of maneuvers to keep Habba in office. Bondi fired Grace from her role as First Assistant, Habba resigned her role as interim U.S. Attorney and withdrew her nomination from the Senate, and Bondi appointed Habba as the new First Assistant U.S. Attorney – which, in the absence of a U.S. Attorney, automatically elevated Habba to the post on an acting basis.

The bold scheme, evidently designed to get around a variety of federal laws adding checks and balances to the U.S. Attorney appointment system, quickly drew challenges from several New Jersey defendants who argued that allowing Habba to prosecute them would violate their rights. Julien Giraud Jr., under indictment on drug and weapons charges, filed the first challenge on July 28; real estate investor Cesar Pina followed suit two weeks later, and the two cases were quickly combined into one, which came before Brann for an August 15 hearing.

Both motions were originally filed with the New Jersey district judges who had been overseeing Giraud’s and Pina’s cases but were transferred to Brann’s Pennsylvania jurisdiction, presumably because the New Jersey judiciary was directly involved in the events of the case itself.

Lawyers for Giraud and Pina made a variety of arguments that all pointed to one inescapable conclusion: the President and Attorney General cannot indefinitely make U.S. Attorney appointments without input from either the Senate or the federal judiciary, both of which have roles to play that are enshrined into federal law. And if Habba’s appointment was illegitimate, they said, the entire system of justice in New Jersey was under threat as long as she remained in office.

“[Habba’s appointment] has direct, ongoing implications for the integrity of every prosecution in the District of New Jersey, including this one,” Giraud’s attorney, Thomas Mirigliano, wrote in a brief in advance of last Friday’s hearing. “The potential consequences cast uncertainty over the entire system, undermine public confidence in the administration of justice and demand prompt, decisive judicial intervention.”

The Justice Department, however, argued that the precise order of events Habba followed – as well as her separate designation by Bondi as a “Special Attorney” overseeing New Jersey – rendered her authority legitimate and unquestionable. Trump, the department wrote in one brief, had made his preference for U.S. Attorney clear, and it must be respected: “That is his prerogative; this Court cannot second-guess it.”

Underpinning the debate, though not necessarily critical to the legal arguments in the case itself, was Habba’s status as an unabashed partisan Republican, a jarring profile for the normally staid U.S. Attorney’s office. Habba made headlines shortly before taking office for saying she hoped to use her office to help “turn New Jersey red,” and she’s since launched multiple investigations into Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and his administration.

And Habba’s highest-profile case so far revolves around another Democratic elected official: Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark), whom Habba charged with allegedly assaulting federal immigration officials during an oversight visit at an immigrant detention center in May. McIver has called the charges politically motivated and filed motions earlier this week to dismiss them entirely, though she hasn’t publicly weighed in on the dispute over Habba’s legitimacy.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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President Donald Trump has sought to undo most of what former President Joe Biden accomplished in office, but his administration has chosen to retain at least one appointee from the Biden era: New Jersey Farm Service Agency executive director Bob Andrzejczak.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced today that Andrzejczak, a former Democratic state legislator from Cape May County who lost re-election in 2019, will be reappointed to his post leading the state farm agency, which doesn’t require Senate confirmation. Andrzejczak had first been named to the job by Biden in 2022.

“When rural America succeeds, our entire country is stronger,” Rollins said in a statement about a wave of Agriculture Department appointments spanning 12 states. “These newly appointed USDA state directors will play a critical role in advancing President Trump’s America First agenda in the states and ensuring that our farmers and ranchers are prioritized.”

Andrzejczak, a U.S. Army veteran severely injured in combat, arrived in the State Assembly in 2013 after being recruited by Jeff Van Drew, then a Democratic state senator who was the dominant force in Cape May County politics. When Van Drew was elected to Congress in 2018, Andrzejczak was appointed to succeed him in the State Senate, but he was defeated by now-State Sen. Mike Testa (R-Vineland) when he tried to run for re-election.

Van Drew, of course, has since switched parties and become Trump’s most loyal ally in the New Jersey congressional delegation. But Van Drew’s distaste for the Biden administration didn’t extend to Andrzejczak, and the congressman said earlier this year that he’d like to see Andrzejczak stick around under Trump.

“I’ve heard from many farmers about how he’s been proactive, he’s been involved, he’s been there,” Van Drew told the New Jersey Globe shortly before Trump took office in January. “He’s actually worked the job; it wasn’t just a patronage job that he got and then boom, he’s not doing anything. He’s not particularly political; he’s more of a veteran hero than he is a Republican or a Democrat.”

During his 2019 re-election campaign, Andrzejczak sought to distance himself from the national Democratic Party brand, suggesting at one point that he’d be open to voting for Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Voter registration records show that while Andrzejczak cast a vote in this year’s state-level Democratic primary, he’s since become an unaffiliated voter.

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Atlantic County Democrats are expected to select Rev. Collins Days, Sr., the pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Atlantic City, to fill the seat left empty following the August 5 death of Ernest D. Coursey, Sr..

Days will serve as the lone Democratic county commissioner until the end of this year.

In November, Days faces Atlantic City Councilman George Tibbit in the race for the District 1 county commissioner seat.  Tibbit switched parties earlier this year and faces Days as a Republican.  Coursey announced in January that he would not be a candidate for re-election, citing health issues.

The District 1 county commissioner seat leans Democratic, but it became more competitive during redistricting after a Democratic map split Atlantic City and Pleasantville into different districts to give them a chance to pick up another seat; that bid was unsuccessful.

Four years ago, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy carried the district by 11 points against Republican Jack Ciattarelli.

Coursey served as an Atlantic City councilman from the Third Ward from 1991 to 2002, serving a stint as council president.  He served as an aide to U.S. Senator Bob Torricelli and as a commissioner of the South Jersey Transportation Authority; Coursey was the deputy mayor of Atlantic City while Lorenzo Langford held the post.  He was elected freeholder, the precursor to county commissioner, and was re-elected in 2016, 2019, and 2022.

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