President angry – “a disgrace”
Trump confidant Alina Habba resigns
12/9/2025 – 5:51 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
An appeals court confirmed that her appointment violated current law. Now Alina Habba has announced her resignation. But the lawyer already has a new job.
Alina Habba resigned as U.S. attorney for New Jersey on Monday after an appeals court confirmed that her appointment would violate federal law governing appointments to government positions. The former Trump defender took over the office in March, but her appointment was neither confirmed by the Senate nor formally compliant with the law. Habba is a close confidante of Donald Trump and previously worked as his personal lawyer.
Habba was initially appointed as an interim solution by Attorney General Pam Bondi and later officially nominated for the post by Trump – but the Senate never voted on the nomination. The Ministry of Justice then tried to legitimize her appeal with an internal regulation. However, both a federal judge and the responsible appeals court declared the procedure to be incompatible with the current law.
“In order to protect the stability and integrity of the office that I love, I have decided to resign,” Habba said on X. At the same time, she emphasized: “This is not a surrender.” This decision will neither weaken the Ministry of Justice nor herself, the lawyer wrote.
Despite his resignation, Habba remains in the Ministry of Justice: The 41-year-old will be a senior advisor in the future US media reported that they work for the Minister of Justice. Pam Bondi announced that she would appeal the decision – the Ministry of Justice expects the verdict to be overturned.
On She accused the judiciary of being politicized and criticized the fact that proceedings against violent criminals had stalled as a result. “These judges should not be able to easily override the president’s choices for key positions,” Bondi said.
Trump also commented – and was not very enthusiastic about the resignation: “Well, she’s not unqualified,” he said. He blamed the so-called “blue slip” process, which effectively allows senators to veto local nominations. It makes it impossible to appoint judges or US attorneys, Trump said. “And it’s a disgrace. Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to continue.”
Habba is not an isolated case: Trump has also appointed his confidant Lindsey Halligan as lead federal prosecutor since taking office. He used certain tricks to prevent the personal details from having to be confirmed by the Senate, as is usually the case.
Halligan, also a former Trump lawyer, was recently disqualified by a court as the top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia. The result: All charges against former FBI chief James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were dropped.
