WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court ruled on Dec. 1 that Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer to Donald Trump, was unlawfully appointed as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey and the panel disqualified her from supervising cases, in a decision rebuking the Republican president.
More: Why Letitia James, maybe also James Comey, could still face charges
The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was the latest blow to Trump and his Justice Department as they seek to install loyalists to oversee key U.S. Attorney's offices around the country.
The 3rd Circuit upheld U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann's August ruling that the Trump administration violated a federal appointments law in naming Habba as acting U.S. Attorney in New Jersey.
"It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place," Judge D. Michael Fisher wrote in the ruling. "Its efforts to elevate its preferred candidate for U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, to the role of Acting U.S. Attorney demonstrate the difficulties it has faced."
