A US appeals court has ruled that President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, has been unlawfully serving as top federal prosecutor for New Jersey – in a ruling that may affect scores of criminal cases in the state.
The president handpicked Habba for the role of US attorney this year, but a district court rejected her nomination, so the Trump administration installed her in a role that allowed her to fill in on an acting basis.
The appellate judges found on Monday that this tactic, which bypassed confirmation by the US Senate, violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
Habba is the second Trump-appointed prosecutor to be disqualified in recent weeks.
“It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place,” one of the appellate judges, Judge Michael Fisher, wrote in Monday’s ruling disqualifying Habba.
The BBC has contacted Habba’s office, the White House, and the Department of Justice for comment.
The ruling may force the justice department to find a new prosecutor to supervise federal criminal cases in New Jersey.
The appellate court’s decision came after three men facing criminal charges in New Jersey argued that the prosecutor’s appointment was not lawful, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported.
That led to a federal judge ruling in their favour in August. That order had been on hold while the appeals court wieghed the case.
A federal judge last week dismissed criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on the grounds that the prosecutor in the case, Lindsey Halligan, was not lawfully appointed as interim US attorney in Virginia.
