by
SAUL
LOEB/AFP
via
Getty
Images)
Alina
Habba
cares
deeply
about
the
rule
of
law.
She
just
cares
about
her
career
more.
Yesterday,
the
New
York
Times
ran
a
three-byline
piece
detailing
the
chaos
in
New
Jersey
thanks
to
President
Trump’s
insistence
that
his
personal
lawyer
serve
as
the
top
prosecutor
in
the
Garden
State.
The
shenanigans
have
been
extensive,
but
briefly
…
In
March,
Trump
installed
Matthew
Giordano,
an
experienced
prosecutor
and
campaign
donor,
as
US
Attorney
for
the
District
of
New
Jersey.
Three
weeks
later,
he
shoved
Giordano
aside,
mumbling
that
he
was
honoring
him
with
an
appointment
as
ambassador
to
Namibia.
Instead
Trump
installed
his
personal
lawyer
Alina
Habba,
a
loyalist
with
zero
prosecutorial
experience.
Trump
nominated
Habba
for
a
full
term,
but
the
Senate
never
took
up
her
appointment
—
and
indeed
she
appears
never
to
have
even
bothered
to
fill
out
the
paperwork.
On
the
eve
of
(what
we
all
assumed
was)
the
expiration
of
her
term,
federal
judges
in
New
Jersey
exercised
their
statutory
right
to
appoint
someone
to
the
vacant
office,
tapping
Habba’s
deputy
Desiree
Grace.
This
so
enraged
Attorney
General
Pam
Bondi
that
she
attempted
to
jujitsu
her
protégé
back
into
place
by
firing
Grace,
appointing
Habba
as
her
own
deputy
and
then
allowing
her
to
succeed
herself
in
office.
For
good
measure,
Bondi
appointed
Habba
as
a
special
counsel,
too.
Multiple
criminal
defendants
sued,
alleging
that
Habba
was
not
legally
serving
as
acting
US
Attorney,
and
thus
her
actions
were
all
ultra
vires.
And
on
August
21,
Judge
Matthew
Brann,
a
Pennsylvania
judge
sitting
by
special
designation
over
the
New
Jersey
case,
agreed.
Indeed,
he
found
that
Bondi’s
appointment
clock
started
with
Giordano,
not
Habba,
and
thus
her
actions
for
much
of
July
were
unauthorized.
Knowing
that
the
administration
would
appeal,
which
it
did,
the
judge
stayed
his
order
pending
review
by
the
Third
Circuit.
And
so
Habba
remains
in
office,
but
in
a
liminal
purgatory
where
no
one
knows
if
she
was
legally
appointed.
Welcome
to
hot
mess
summer!
As
detailed
in
the
Times,
“courts
are
bracing
for
the
possibility
that
any
proceedings
Ms.
Habba
has
touched,
or
those
involving
prosecutors
she
supervises,
could
be
challenged
by
defense
lawyers.”
Cases
are
being
stayed
and
trials
postponed.
Defendants
remain
inside
or
outside
of
jail
indefinitely.
The
system
has
effectively
ground
to
a
halt.
Does
Habba
feel
a
twinge
of
guilt
at
occasioning
paralysis
across
an
entire
state’s
criminal
justice
system?
Ms.
Habba
could
reduce
the
risk
to
current
and
future
cases
by
recusing
herself
until
the
appeals
court
makes
a
decision,
but
has
thus
far
declined
to
do
so.
Let’s
go
with
NO.
She
will
make
New
Jersey
great
again,
if
she
has
to
let
hundreds
of
criminal
cases
die
for
violating
the
speedy
trial
requirement
to
do
it.
That’s
on
the
Sixth
Amendment,
not
her!
Or
probably
it’s
on
those
dastardly
judges,
for
failing
to
recognize
her
authority
as
Trump’s
own
anointed
one.
It’s
not
clear
why
the
administration
is
digging
in
so
aggressively
on
this
issue.
Even
under
the
DOJ’s
cockeyed
interpretation
of
the
Federal
Vacancies
Reform
Act,
Habba
would
be
limited
to
210
days
in
office
,
not
a
full
term.
But
perhaps
the
DOJ
views
Habba
as
a
test
case,
since
it
has
at
least
a
dozen
acting
US
Attorneys
who
are
staring
down
the
end
of
their
120-day
appointments
with
no
possibility
of
Senate
confirmation
or
renomination
by
the
district
judges.
They’ve
also
tried
a
similar
I’m
my
own
first
assistant!
maneuver
in
the
Northern
District
of
New
York.
Tapping
out
on
Habba
risks
conceding
that
none
of
the
hacks
they’ve
loosed
on
prosecutors’
offices
are
legit.
And
so
New
Jersey’s
limbo
looks
likely
to
drag
on
into
fall.
Because
nothing
says
“tough
on
crime”
like
making
sure
that
you
can’t
fight
it
at
all.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.