A U.S. appeals court has ruled that President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Alina Habba, is illegally serving as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor. This ruling is likely to affect numerous criminal cases in New Jersey.
The president handpicked Harbaugh to serve as U.S. attorney this year, but after a district court rejected her nomination, the Trump administration appointed her to a role she could fill in an acting role.
An appeals judge ruled Monday that the tactic, which circumvented U.S. Senate approval, violated the federal Vacancies Reform Act.
Harbaugh is the second Trump-appointed prosecutor to be disqualified in recent weeks.
“It is clear that this administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to securing a nominee,” Judge Michael Fisher, one of the appellate judges, wrote in Monday’s ruling disqualifying Harbaugh.
The BBC has contacted Prime Minister Harbaugh’s office, the White House and the Department of Justice for comment.
“This is the first time an appeals court has ruled that President Trump cannot usurp a long-standing legal and constitutional process to put the person he wants in this position,” Abbe David Lowell, Gerry Krovatin and Norm Eisen, the three lawyers who challenged Harbaugh’s authority, wrote in a joint statement.
“We will continue to challenge, where appropriate, President Trump’s alleged unlawful appointment as United States Attorney,” the statement added.
Harbaugh, 41, first joined Trump’s personal legal team in 2021 after meeting Trump at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
She represented Trump at his stash of money trial in New York last year, where he was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump has appealed this conviction.
Before Harbaugh took over as U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Trump announced that he would nominate Harbaugh to be his assistant to the president during his second administration, describing her as “unwaveringly loyal” and a “tireless advocate for justice.”
Monday’s ruling may force the Justice Department to find a new prosecutor to oversee federal criminal cases in New Jersey.
The appeal court’s decision came after three men facing criminal charges in New Jersey claimed the prosecutor’s appointment was unlawful, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported.
Last August, a federal judge ruled in their favor. That order was put on hold while the appeals court heard the case.
Harbaugh is not the first Trump-appointed U.S. attorney to face legal challenges.
Last week, a federal judge dismissed the criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on the grounds that Lindsey Halligan, the U.S. attorney in the case, was not legally appointed as interim U.S. attorney for Virginia.
Last October, a U.S. district judge disbarred Bill Essayli as acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California after finding he had stayed in his temporary position longer than allowed by law.
But the judge allowed Essayli to continue overseeing the office as the first assistant U.S. attorney in the nation’s most populous federal judicial district, serving about 19 million people.
Defense attorneys filed a motion to overturn that portion of the judge’s ruling to oust Essayli entirely.
Last September, another U.S. district judge also disbarred Nevada’s chief federal prosecutor, Sigal Chattah, ruling that he was not legally acting as U.S. attorney.
