By Andrew Goudward and Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A American judge ruled on Thursday that Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer of President Donald Trump, was appointed illegally as the acting American lawyer for New Jersey and is therefore not eligible to participate in current affairs.
The ruling is a setback for Trump's Ministry of Justice, which maneuvered to keep Habba in her position and to circumvent a judicial decision not to extend her interim official period of 120 days.
“Faced with the question of whether Mrs. Habba legally performs the positions and tasks of the American lawyer for the New Jersey district, I conclude that she is not,” wrote American district judge Matthew Brann.
The challenges for Habba's authority were brought by two defendants in an illegal drug shop, Julien Giraud Jr. and Julien Giraud III and Cesar Humberto Pina, a suspect in another case accused of fraud and money laundering of drug income.
The defendants in the two cases challenged a series of Trump administration procedural maneuvers in July to keep Habba as the best federal public prosecutor for another 210 days.
Brann wrote that the actions of Habba have been declared void since 1 July, including her approval of the indictment of the suspect Cesar Humberto Pina ', although that fact does not require his dismissal.
“Justice officers use enormous power, and with that comes the responsibility to ensure that they are qualified and correctly appointed,” said Abbe David Lowell and Gerald Krovatin, lawyers for Pina, in a statement. “We appreciate the thoroughness of the advice of the court, and its decision underlines that this government cannot circumvent the congress to confirm the American lawyer agreements.”
The ruling is likely to stimulate similar legal challenges and could stop hundreds of federal criminal cases in New Jersey.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice could not be reached immediately for comment.
The Department has argued that Habba has been validly appointed and that Attorney General Pam Bondi has given its authority to guide things, regardless of its title. The Trump government accused judges about the federal court of New Jersey, who appointed the best deputy of Habba as her successor to political motives.
The Department uses comparable tactics to avoid judicial intervention and temporarily keeps at least three other American lawyers in line with Trump in their role.
It fired Desiree Grace, a public prosecutor who was selected by the court to replace Habba, and the White House said that Trump has preventively removed her as an American lawyer.
Brann, the main judge in the middle district of Pennsylvania, had already ruled that the Giraud case could not be thrown away due to uncertainty about the appointment of Habba, but reserved ruling on whether Habba and her office would give permission to guide it.
The case was again assigned to Brann because the federal judges of New Jersey were involved in the dispute.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudward and Sarah N. Lynch; Edit by Scott Malone, Daniel Wallis and Cynthia Osterman)
