'Pack it up': 'Partisan' Trump lawyer draws scathing criticism as her 'chaotic' DOJ term ends

21 July 2025

Alina Habba outside Trump Tower in New York City on March 21, 2023 (Joe Tabacca/Shutterstock.com)

On March 24, President Donald Trump announced that he was appointing one of his former personal attorneys, Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey. The 41-year-old Habba has gone out of her way to politicize the position, voting to "turn New Jersey red."

According to the Daily Beast's Janna Brancolini, many employees of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) don't appreciate her antics a bit — and are glad her four-month term is coming to an end.

"Although some prosecutors had hoped that Habba was just putting on a media show for Trump and his MAGA base," Brancolini explains in an article published on July 21, "she has infuriated staff by apparently following through on her March promise to bring partisan politics to the role, according to a report in The New York Times. In just a few months, Habba has destroyed morale by prosecuting Democratic lawmakers, offering special treatment to a repeat felon with ties to Republican lawmakers, killing the office's longest-running prosecution just days before it was set to go to trial, and disbanding the office’s Civil Rights Division, 16 sources told the Times."

Brancolini adds, "Many prosecutors are looking for new jobs even as Habba desperately tries to hang on to her appointment, which could end as early as this week. Trump has nominated her to the position permanently, but she may not survive the Senate confirmation process, according to the Times. New Jersey’s Democratic senators have accused her of degrading the U.S. attorney’s office with her political prosecutions."

Habba, Brancolini notes, "hung three framed pictures of herself in a conference room" at DOJ.

Habba's antics are generating discussion on X, formerly Twitter.

Journalist/author James L. Bruno commented, "Guess it's back to being legal counsel for parking garages."

Attorney Norm L. Eisen posted, "Not so fast Alina As she leaves, bipartisan ethics experts are demanding an investigation into Habba's Hatch Act violations She used her official position to promote partisan politics & GOP candidates That's a no-no!"

X user @Hqdepot1 posted, "One of trump's Viktor Shokin-like 'prosecutors': GONE, New Jersey and American Justice is all the better for it. Alina Habba leaving behind angry staff and portraits of herself on the walls as job ends."

Another X user, @ChefjparkJohn, wrote, "On the scale of underqualified Maga people, she was somewhere between Hegseth and Duffy. Back to the Parking Garages for her."

Author Lois Romano noted, "In her brief tenure, she found time to hang three portraits of herself in the conference room."

X user Charlies Perreira tweeted, "Alina Habba's chaotic stint as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey is ending the only way it could — with scorched morale, outraged prosecutors, and portraits of herself left behind like some delusional dictator clinging to relevance. She dismantled the Civil Rights Division. She interfered in cases she didn't understand. She prioritized selfies and defense attorneys over justice, and tanked the office’s longest-running prosecution days before trial — just to flex. This wasn’t leadership. It was ego cosplay in a federal office. Trump handed a megaphone to a MAGA cheerleader and called it 'law and order.' Now the real attorneys are either leaving or praying she does. Pack it up, Alina. Your 120-day MAGA fantasy is over."

Read the Daily Beast's full article at this link (subscription required).

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