Preempted and struck out’: Alina Habba lashes out at judges who attempted to kill her application for a US attorney, accusing them of ‘attempting to undermine the president’s powers’

“Acting” Alina Habba, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, claims that the federal judges who voted not to extend her months-long tenure as the Garden State’s top federal prosecutor “preempted and struck out” when she returned to the position days later.

“They are missing a very important point, which is that the President of the United States picks the United States attorneys,” Habba said Saturday during an interview on “The Benny Show” with right-wing political commentator and YouTuber Benny Johnson.

“We are part of the executive branch,” Habba explained. “I’m still the acting US Attorney. I’m ready to rock and roll and get back to work, which is exactly what this is all about. “This is just a lot of noise, which is unfortunate.”

Last Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s former personal defense attorney was informed that she was no longer the “interim” U.S. attorney for New Jersey and would be replaced by her first assistant, Desiree Grace, as per a standing order to appoint her at the end of her 120-day term.

Her last day was supposed to be Friday, July 25, but Habba reportedly resigned on Thursday before being reappointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to Grace’s previous position as chief deputy, according to Habba.

Bondi announced on Friday that Grace had been “removed” from the US Attorney’s Office and replaced by Habba, her new second in command.

“Our job is to clean up crime. Instead, there has been political noise that has no place in the Department of Justice,” Habba stated on Saturday. “They used to ask me, ‘How do we know you’re not going to be political?’ Meanwhile, their behavior is just that.”

When asked how “rogue district judges” could “usurp the power of the presidency,” Habba claimed to put it “in really simple terms” for Johnson and viewers, calling it a “complicated mechanism, what’s happening,” and a “broken one.”

She chastised New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim for stalling her nomination using the Senate’s informal “blue slip” tradition, which allows home-state senators to approve or reject federal judicial nominees and U.S. attorney appointments in their states.

“What we’re seeing is a systemic problem where they’re using the blue slip courtesy — it’s not a law — as a mechanism to block the appointed U.S. attorneys for the Department of Justice by the president,” Habba told CNN. “And that puts those US attorneys in a position where they’re kind of stuck and you’re in this freeze and you can’t get out and then they’ll run the clock on you.”

Habba continued: “They’re attempting to thwart the president’s powers.”

Habba had previously worked as a legal spokeswoman and one of Trump’s attorneys in his New York civil fraud trial, E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit, and other cases before transitioning to a position as counselor to the president and acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Bondi appointed her on an interim basis nearly 120 days ago, which is the time limit for acting appointments under the relevant statute.

Although Trump has nominated Habba to serve permanently as U.S. attorney, the administration has been unable to move the nomination through the Senate before her acting stint expires, leaving Habba at the mercy of judges in the interim.

In March, Bondi appointed Habba as interim U.S. attorney under 28 U.S. Code § 546, which allows for an appointee to serve until confirmation by the Senate or for 120 days thereafter.

Habba claimed Saturday that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) gave “direct instructions on Twitter” to federal judges to vote and block her.

“Once it gets out of the Senate’s ownership, the judges — if you’re interim — can vote to keep you,” Habba told reporters. “So I stepped down as the interim and released my nomination and I’m now the acting U.S. attorney.”

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