Few have been as loyal to President Donald Trump as Alina Habba, one of his former personal attorneys, so it wasn’t a surprise when he named her as U.S. Attorney in her home state of New Jersey. But that phase of her career now appears to be over.
Habba has now resigned after a federal appeals court ruled that her appointment was invalid.
Habba, who previously represented President Trump in several high-profile civil cases — including the politically charged New York civil fraud trial — stepped down following the court’s decision. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement announcing Habba’s resignation, closing the loop on yet another legal skirmish triggered by procedural challenges rather than any wrongdoing on Trump’s part.
“Following the flawed Third Circuit decision disqualifying Alina Habba from performing her duties in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of New Jersey, I am saddened to accept Alina’s resignation,” Bondi wrote.
The AG explained that a Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling determining that Habba was unlawfully serving in her position “made it untenable for her to effectively run her office, with politicized judges pausing trials designed to bring violent criminals to justice.”
Bondi went on to say: “These judgess should not be able to countermand the President’s choice of attorneys entrusted with carrying out the executive branch’s core responsibility of prosecuting crime.”
However, the battle might not be over. Bondi noted that the Justice Department “will seek further review of this decision, and we are confident it will be reversed.” If indeed it is reversed, Habba will return to her position.
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 8, 2025
Habba also released a statement on social media that confirmed her resignation while also touting her record during her short time in office, saying that Camden, N.J., “had its first murder-free summer in 50 years” and that her team “drove down crime, took violent offenders off the streets, caught terrorists, and put away child predators.”
She stated that “judges in my state took advantage of a flawed blue slip tradition and became weapons for the politicized left” and “stopped conducting trials and entering sentences, leaving violent criminals on the streets.”
The “blue slip” tradition allows a state’s senators to effectively veto judicial or federal nominations from their home state by withholding approval. In this case, Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim used that procedural maneuver to block Habba from even receiving a confirmation hearing.
It wasn’t about her qualifications — it was raw partisan obstruction. And it worked, at least so far. “As a result of the Third Circuit’s ruling, and to protect the stability andintegrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey,” Habba wrote.
— Alina Habba (@AlinaHabba) December 8, 2025
Maybe Trump is right: It might be time for the GOP majority in the Senate to ‘retire’ these ‘traditions’ like the filibuster and the blue slip.
