NEW JERSEY — After months of legal turmoil and mounting judicial backlash, Alina Habba has stepped down as Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, ending a three-month standoff over the legality of her appointment.

Habba, one of Donald Trump’s most recognizable attorneys from his New York civil fraud trial and defamation cases, announced her resignation in a statement posted to social media on Monday. She emphasized she will continue serving in the Trump administration as Senior Adviser to the Attorney General for U.S. Attorneys, a newly created position within Attorney General Pam Bondi’s leadership structure.

Her resignation comes on the heels of a string of federal court rulings declaring she had “no lawful authority” to serve as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor. In August, a U.S. District Court judge blocked her from continuing in the role, and a unanimous federal appeals court affirmed that ruling last week. The Department of Justice declined to appeal.

Despite the court orders, Habba remained in place for weeks under a workaround created by Attorney General Bondi, who designated her a “Special Attorney to the Attorney General.” The move drew immediate resistance inside the judiciary, with several federal judges delaying proceedings to examine whether the workaround violated the earlier disqualification.

Habba’s departure now marks another setback in the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to install loyalists as U.S. attorneys, an initiative that has been repeatedly struck down in federal courts.

Court Defeats Mount for Trump’s U.S. Attorney Appointees

The Habba ruling comes amid a broader collapse of the administration’s attempt to bypass Senate confirmation requirements and place Trump-aligned lawyers in top prosecutorial roles nationwide.

Just weeks earlier, the same appeals court invalidated the appointment of Lindsey Halligan, a former insurance lawyer and White House aide who was tapped to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia despite having no prosecutorial background.

Halligan’s disqualification triggered immediate fallout:

Both criminal indictments against James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were thrown out entirely, with Judge Cameron McGowan Currie declaring the indictments legally void because Halligan lacked authority to convene a grand jury.

A new grand jury refused to revive the administration’s case against Letitia James, rejecting attempts to refile charges.

Federal judges in Virginia have since publicly criticized the Justice Department for continuing to file motions and briefs bearing Halligan’s name and title even after she was barred from the office. Some described it as the administration “defying” a federal order.

Bondi and Blanche Lash Out at Judiciary

On Monday morning, hours before Habba announced her resignation, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche released a blistering joint statement condemning what they called “undemocratic judicial activism.”

The statement accused federal judges of bias for questioning Halligan’s authority and defended the administration’s strategy:

“Lindsey and our attorneys are simply doing their jobs… They do not deserve to have their reputations questioned for ethically advocating on behalf of their client. This Department of Justice has no tolerance for undemocratic judicial activism.”

The comments drew immediate attention because they appeared to escalate tensions between the Justice Department and federal courts at a moment when several Trump-era prosecutions have collapsed due to appointment irregularities.

A High-Profile Figure Steps Back — but Not Out

Habba’s tenure as U.S. attorney became a national flashpoint not only because of her close ties to Trump but also because her appointment followed a federal court’s $1 million sanction against her and Trump for filing a frivolous lawsuit against Comey and Hillary Clinton.

Her resignation brings the New Jersey standoff to a close, but her continuing influence inside the Justice Department ensures she will remain central to the administration’s prosecutorial agenda.

With multiple U.S. attorney appointments now overturned, the Justice Department faces growing questions about its adherence to constitutional norms — and whether additional cases may unravel as courts scrutinize the administration’s methods.