Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision this week to fire a U.S. attorney appointed by federal judges in New Jersey to replace Alina Habba is being viewed as part of an overall effort to defend and protect President Donald Trump’s mandate to his supporters.
Earlier this week, as Habba’s 120-day appointment as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey was approaching its Friday deadline, federal judges in the state — most of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents — took the rare action of voting not to reaffirm her and instead chose her assistant, Desiree Leigh Grace, to become acting U.S. attorney.
But no sooner than the judges picked Grace, Bondi announced that she was firing her, adding in a combative statement that “rogue judges” who seek to block Trump’s agenda would not be tolerated.
“[Habba] has been doing a great job in making NJ safe again,” Bondi wrote on social media on Tuesday. “Nonetheless, politically minded judges refused to allow her to continue in her position, replacing Alina with the First Assistant. Accordingly, the First Assistant United States Attorney in New Jersey has just been removed.”
“This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers,” Bondi added.
Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, accused the judges of “colluding with the NJ Senators along the way.”
“It won’t work,” he wrote on social media. “Pursuant to the President’s authority, we have removed that deputy, effective immediately. This backroom vote will not override the authority of the Chief Executive.”
President Donald Trump used an appointment maneuver to keep Habba in her post. Habba’s 120-day temporary appointment was set to expire at midnight Friday evening, meaning she would have had to step down. But on Thursday, Trump withdrew her nomination to become the permanent U.S. attorney, according to a Justice Dept. official, and instead appointed her first assistant U.S. attorney, making her acting U.S. attorney again for the time being since that post is vacant, The Hill reported.
As for Bondi, her move to protect Habba follows a pattern of similar actions aimed at weeding out federal staffers seen as hostile to the Trump administration.
Last week, Bondi fired Maurene Comey, a Southern District of New York prosecutor who had previously prosecuted deceased child sex traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Comey, a senior trial lawyer, is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, whom President Trump fired in 2017.
“The reason for her firing was not immediately clear. She did not immediately respond to phone calls and an email seeking comment,” Politico said. “Comey, who had worked in the U.S. attorney’s office for nearly a decade, prosecuted both Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.”
A month ago, Bondi dismissed at least three Justice Department prosecutors involved in criminal cases related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
The firings were the latest in a broader pattern of removals targeting attorneys who have prosecuted cases against Trump supporters or the former president himself, Fox13 reported, citing sources who spoke to The Associated Press.
The fired prosecutors reportedly include two supervisory attorneys who oversaw Capitol riot cases at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, as well as a third-line attorney involved in prosecuting individual defendants.
According to the Associated Press, a termination letter issued to one of the attorneys—signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi—did not provide a specific reason for the dismissal, citing only the administration’s constitutional authority under Article II, the reports said.
In February, interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin reassigned several key members of the department’s Capitol Siege Section, including prosecutors who had helped secure seditious conspiracy convictions against extremist leaders Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio.
Earlier, in January, then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove terminated roughly two dozen prosecutors who had been hired under the Biden administration for temporary roles related to the January 6 investigations but were later converted to permanent positions after Trump’s 2024 victory. Bove accused the previous administration of engaging in “subversive personnel actions.”