TRENTON, N.J. — Alina Habba, who served as President Donald Trump’s defense lawyer and a White House counselor and became one of the most high-profile U.S. attorneys, saw her 120-day interim term as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor end Tuesday.
Chief Judge for the District of New Jersey Renee Marie Bumb said in an order that first Assistant U.S. Attorney Desiree Leigh Grace has been named as Habba’s successor.
Habba, 41, could have stayed on in the role if federal judges in the state kept her on. Bumb’s order did not offer an explanation for the decision and said it was effective Tuesday.
Habba’s tenure included the high-profile prosecution of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, which was eventually dropped, and the ongoing assault case against Rep. LaMonica McIver. Both cases, against Democrats, stemmed from a visit to a privately operated immigration detention center in the state’s largest city.
Messages seeking comment were left with Habba’s office and the Justice Department.
Grace’s LinkedIn page shows she’s served as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey for the last nearly nine years.
Trump, a Republican, nominated Habba for the position pending Senate confirmation, but the state’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim signaled their opposition to her appointment. Under a longstanding Senate practice known as senatorial courtesy, a nominee’s appointment can stall out without backing from home state senators, a phenomenon facing a handful of other Trump picks for U.S. attorney.
Booker and Kim had questioned whether Habba met the standard to serve as the state’s top federal prosecutor and accused her of bringing politically motivated prosecutions.
Among Habba’s highest-profile prosecutions stemmed from a May visit by three Democratic members of Congress and Baraka to the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in Newark. Baraka was arrested on a trespass charge stemming from his attempt to join a congressional visit of the facility. Baraka denied any wrongdoing, and Habba eventually dropped that charge.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa rebuked Habba’s office after moving to dismiss the charges, writing that the move amounted to a “worrisome misstep” and calling the arrest hasty. Baraka is suing Habba in her official capacity over what he says was a “malicious prosecution.”
Habba later brought assault charges against McIver, a freshman representative from the city who first was elected in a special election last year, over physical contact she made with law enforcement officials as Baraka was being arrested.
The indictment of McIver was the latest development in a legal-political drama that has seen the Trump administration take Democratic officials from New Jersey’s largest city to court amid the president’s ongoing immigration crackdown and Democrats’ efforts to respond. The prosecution is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress for allegations other than fraud or corruption.
A nearly two-minute video clip released by the Department of Homeland Security shows McIver at the facility inside a chain-link fence just before Baraka’s arrest on the other side of the barrier, where other people were protesting. McIver and uniformed officials go through the gate, and she joins others shouting that they should circle the mayor.
The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. Her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word “Police.”
Besides the prosecution of McIver, Habba had announced she launched an investigation into New Jersey’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, and attorney general, Matt Platkin, over the state’s directive barring local law enforcement from cooperating with federal agents conducting immigration enforcement.
In social media posts, Habba highlighted her office’s prosecution of drug traffickers, including against 30 members of a fentanyl and crack cocaine ring in Newark.
A partner in a small New Jersey law firm near Trump’s Bedminster golf course, Habba served as a senior adviser for Trump’s political action committee, defended him in court in several civil lawsuits and acted as a spokesperson last year as he volleyed between courtrooms and the campaign trail.
U.S. attorneys often have experience as prosecutors, including at the state or local level. Many, including the acting U.S. attorneys in Brooklyn and Manhattan, have worked in the offices they now lead.
Habba said she wanted to pursue the president’s agenda of “putting America first.”
Habba was one of Trump’s most visible defense attorneys, appearing on cable TV news as his “legal spokesperson.” She represented Trump in 2024 in the defamation case involving E. Jean Carroll.
But Habba has had limited federal court experience, practicing mainly in state-level courts. During the Carroll trial, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan chided Habba for botching procedure, misstating the law, asking about off-limits topics and objecting after he ruled.