{"id":9445,"date":"2025-05-20T21:02:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T21:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/alina-habba-targeted-democrats-when-she-became-new-jerseys-top-prosecutor-now-shes-following-through\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T21:02:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T21:02:15","slug":"alina-habba-targeted-democrats-when-she-became-new-jerseys-top-prosecutor-now-shes-following-through","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/alina-habba-targeted-democrats-when-she-became-new-jerseys-top-prosecutor-now-shes-following-through\/","title":{"rendered":"Alina Habba targeted Democrats when she became New Jersey\u2019s top prosecutor. Now she\u2019s following through."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

From the moment she was named New Jersey\u2019s interim U.S. Attorney<\/a>, Alina Habba made it clear she would use the office as a political bludgeon.<\/p>\n

Just before her March swearing-in, Habba talked to a far-right activist about turning \u201cNew Jersey red,\u201d announced investigations<\/a> into its Democratic governor and attorney general over immigration, called out Sen. Cory Booker\u2019s hometown of Newark for crime and said \u201cI\u2019m looking at you, Paterson\u201d over the city\u2019s immigration policies.<\/p>\n

Habba, who had no prosecutorial experience but represented President Donald Trump in three civil trials in recent years, found an opening this month to make her mark, when three Democratic House members and a progressive mayor running for governor showed up to inspect a migrant detention center in Newark.<\/p>\n

Habba initially charged Newark Mayor Ras Baraka<\/a> with trespass despite his compliance with federal agents\u2019 demands to leave the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility\u2019s fenced-in area. She dropped the misdemeanor charge this week but escalated the May 9 dispute by charging<\/a> Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver<\/a> with felony assault<\/a> on law enforcement in the scuffle that ensued while they arrested Baraka.<\/p>\n

Habba\u2019s decision drew plaudits on the right and protests from Democrats that she had crossed a \u201cred line,\u201d with New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone<\/a> going as far as to liken her behavior to a \u201cfascist regime.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be the first time New Jersey\u2019s U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office has been tainted by politics. Habba\u2019s predecessor Phil Sellinger testified in the corruption trial of Democratic former Sen. Bob Menendez<\/a>, who had wanted Sellinger to go easy in a bank fraud case against a developer friend, Fred Daibes, who would later become his codefendant. Former Gov. Chris Christie, who also had no prosecutorial experience when he became U.S. attorney, built his political career as an anti-corruption crusader in the office, often targeting Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris Christie used that office brilliantly for his own political purposes, but he didn\u2019t come at it with a meat cleaver the way she\u2019s approaching it,\u201d said Gerry Krovatin, a prominent New Jersey defense lawyer and Democrat who has often represented clients prosecuted by the New Jersey U.S. attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Few expect Habba to remain in the job once her 120-day interim appointment expires. She hasn\u2019t been formally nominated, and even if she is, New Jersey\u2019s Democratic senators don\u2019t look inclined to allow the nomination to proceed. Many in New Jersey\u2019s legal community doubt that the state\u2019s district court judges, who can appoint a U.S. attorney<\/a> if the interim appointment expires, would vote to keep Habba in the role. A spokesperson for the New Jersey U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office did not respond to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Habba has been floated as a potential challenger to Booker<\/a> in 2026, and as a potential Fox News host<\/a>. For now, New Jersey Democrats are wondering how much damage she can do in her four months on the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fighting with a lot of people about being scared and being afraid to speak out,\u201d said attorney Nancy Erika Smith, a Democrat. \u201cThere\u2019s fear out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith played a role in Habba\u2019s first New Jersey scandal<\/a>, when she represented a 21-year-old former server at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. The server, Alice Bianco, claimed that Habba befriended her in 2021 when Bianco was planning to file a sexual harassment suit against the club, encouraged her to fire her lawyer and convinced her to sign a non-disclsoure agreement in exchange for $15,000. (The club and Habba both settled with Bianco).<\/p>\n

Smith suggested Habba\u2019s work on Bianco helped her cozy up to Trump, since she began representing him in a defamation case just weeks after Bianco signed the non-disclosure agreement, which is illegal in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s red meat for the Fox News base that\u2019s all she cares about,\u201d Smith said. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t care about law, she doesn\u2019t care about ethics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Habba, 41<\/a>, described herself at the Republican National Convention last year as a \u201cfeisty Jersey girl<\/a>\u201d and a first-generation Arab-American who is a devout Catholic. Her parents fled Iraq in the 1980s. Before college, she attended a private girls\u2019 school in New Jersey and her LinkedIn page says she attended Lehigh University and then Widener University Commonwealth Law School in Pennsylvania. After law school, she clerked for state court Judge Eugene Codey.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Habba to the office in March, a month after Trump\u2019s expected pick for U.S. attorney, state Sen. Doug Steinhardt, withdrew himself from the running because he was not certain he would win confirmation.<\/p>\n

Just days into her tenure, New Jersey\u2019s legal community began raising alarms. Forty-two law professors at Seton Hall and Rutgers in an open letter<\/a> published in the New Jersey Law Journal on April 2 called her \u201cfundamentally unqualified\u201d and said her public statements \u201cshow a lack of respect for the integrity and impartiality that is at the core of the Department of Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judges of the District Court should exercise the power entrusted to them by statute \u2014 they should refuse to rubber stamp an unqualified interim appointee and instead appoint a qualified U.S. attorney to lead federal law enforcement in New Jersey,\u201d the professors wrote.<\/p>\n

Five days after taking office, Habba, outfitted in a bulletproof vest, attended a raid in Newark, personally escorting some of the defendants to law-enforcement vehicles after they had been handcuffed. The move raised eyebrows in the legal community, both because it is highly unusual for a U.S. attorney to attend an arrest and because her presence could have legal consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll in all, it\u2019s probably better if our prosecutorial chiefs do not do that just for appearances sake,\u201d said Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University law school who specializes in legal ethics. He added that \u201cas U.S. attorney, her conduct in the field may be subject to investigation or challenge by the defense lawyers, and it\u2019s best to avoid that if possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Trump\u2019s lawyer, Habba repeatedly drew the ire of judges before whom she appeared. In Trump\u2019s civil fraud trial against the New York Attorney General\u2019s office, she complained in court about \u201ceye rolls and constant whispering<\/a>\u201d from the judge\u2019s principal law clerk. It was one of the actions that prompted the judge, Justice Arthur Engoron, to issue a gag order preventing Trump\u2019s attorneys from making public remarks about communications between Engoron and his staff.<\/p>\n

Engoron eventually fined Habba and four other Trump attorneys $7,500 each for repeating legal arguments that had previously failed and had been deemed \u201cborderline frivolous.\u201d (The attorneys are appealing those fines along with the judgment against Trump and his adult sons.)<\/p>\n

In Trump\u2019s second trial against E. Jean Carroll, Habba attempted to use a slide in her closing argument that included material she hadn\u2019t entered as evidence. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened to detain her<\/a>. \u201cYou are on the verge of spending some time in the lockup,\u201d he told her. \u201cNow, sit down,\u201d he said angrily.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks fined Habba and Trump nearly $1 million<\/a> in sanctions for filing a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and dozens of former Justice Department and FBI officials that the judge called \u201ccompletely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, she has won praise from some lawyers who have worked with her. \u201cAlina is an incredibly talented lawyer who has proven to be both fearless and loyal, two important characteristics to the president,\u201d said Joe Tacopina, who represented Trump alongside Habba during the first Carroll trial.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Joe Pennacchio, a Republican who was New Jersey co-chair of Trump\u2019s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, said Habba \u201cdid try to temper\u201d her actions by dropping the charges against Baraka.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got to draw some type of line in the sand in some way,\u201d Pennacchio said. \u201cNo one\u2019s going to jail for this, but it\u2019s going to be a little more of a hassle that [McIver] is going to have to defend herself and explain what she did.\u201d<\/p>\n

But keeping politics out of her day job appears to be somewhat of an ongoing challenge for the first-time prosecutor. In an interview with far-right activist Jack Posobiec just before she took office, Habba suggested New Jersey could swing Republican.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could turn New Jersey red. I really do believe that,\u201d Habba said. \u201cHopefully while I\u2019m there I can help that cause. I\u2019m not a political person in that role, but the one thing I just want to do is make it safer.\u201d<\/p>\n

A partisan office could present problems for prosecutors, police and, Habba\u2019s critics warn, the public.<\/p>\n

New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, who was appointed to the post by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and who Habba said she is investigating, said in a recent interview with BLN that Habba\u2019s office has had \u201cno interest\u201d in working with the state on joint law enforcement activities and warned of the risks. \u201cWe saw what happens in 9\/11 when law enforcement agencies aren\u2019t communicating,\u201d Platkin said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the moment she was named New Jersey\u2019s interim U.S. Attorney, Alina Habba made it clear she would use the office as a political bludgeon. Just before her March swearing-in, Habba talked to a far-right activist about turning \u201cNew Jersey red,\u201d announced investigations into its Democratic governor and attorney general over immigration, called out Sen. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}