Northeast
Trump hit with setback as court rules Alina Habba unlawfully served as top federal prosecutor in New Jersey
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An appellate court found on Monday that Alina Habba is unlawfully serving as the top prosecutor in New Jersey, delivering a blow to President Donald Trump as he fights to keep his preferred nominees in charge of U.S. attorneys’ offices in blue states.
A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit said in a unanimous order that a lower court was correct to disqualify Habba, a fiery Trump loyalist who previously served as the president’s personal defense lawyer.
The Trump administration’s argument would “effectively [permit] anyone to fill the U.S. Attorney role indefinitely,” the panel wrote, adding that “this should raise a red flag.”
The administration could ask for a full panel of 3rd Circuit judges to reconsider the decision, or it could turn to the Supreme Court to weigh in. Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Justice and a Habba spokesperson for comment.
TRUMP APPOINTS HABBA AS ‘ACTING’ US ATTORNEY AFTER JUDGES OUSTED HER
President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom with lawyers Christopher M. Kise and Alina Habba during his civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court on Oct. 17, 2023, in New York City. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)
The three-judge panel heard arguments on Habba’s appointment in October and grilled a DOJ lawyer over the unconventional way Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi reinstalled Habba as U.S. attorney after her initial, temporary appointment expired.
Habba is one of several names who became jammed up in court proceedings over allegations that Trump sidestepped the Senate and improperly exploited loopholes in federal vacancy laws to keep his preferred prosecutors in place.
Habba’s case was the furthest along in the court process, but Lindsey Halligan and Bill Essayli, temporary U.S. attorneys in Virginia and California, respectively, are among those also facing high-stakes court challenges to their appointments. A federal judge found last week that Halligan was unlawfully serving in her role, but the administration has vowed to appeal the decision.
The panel that heard Habba’s case comprised two appointees of former President George W. Bush and an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
TRUMP’S US ATTORNEYS IN BLUE STATES FACE LEGAL CHALLENGES THAT COULD UPEND KEY PROSECUTIONS
Alina Habba speaks during a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Maryland. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The judges had voiced skepticism of DOJ lawyer Henry Whitaker’s claims that Bondi had authority to fill the vacancy for the U.S. attorney of New Jersey after Trump fired the court-appointed one. Whitaker said the administration simply took advantage of “overlapping mechanisms” afforded to it by Congress.
“In this case, the executive branch admittedly took a series of precise and precisely timed steps not to evade or circumvent those mechanisms but rather to be scrupulously careful to comply with them,” Whitaker said.
One of the judges said during the oral arguments that he viewed Habba’s case as unusual and possibly unconstitutional.
“Would you concede that the sequence of events here, and for me, they’re unusual, would you concede that there are serious constitutional implications to your theory here, the government’s theory, which really is a complete circumvention, it seems, of the appointments clause?” the judge asked.
Veteran D.C. lawyer Abbe Lowell, known for his involvement in lawsuits challenging the Trump administration, represented the defendants contesting Habba’s appointment.
Two sets of defendants facing run-of-the-mill charges brought the challenge to Habba, saying she should not be allowed to prosecute them because she was an invalid U.S. attorney.
TRUMP NOMINEES SQUEEZED BETWEEN ‘BLUE SLIPS’ AND BLUE OBSTRUCTION
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks as President Donald Trump looks on during a press conference in the Oval Office of the White House on Oct. 15, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Habba had no path to Senate confirmation, in part because New Jersey’s Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, did not approve of her through the Senate’s blue slip tradition.
That precedent has drawn Trump’s ire as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, stands firmly behind blue slips, which require home state senators to approve of U.S. attorney and district judge nominees.
Trump recently conveyed, through his firing of former U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert, that earning Democratic senators’ approval could be disqualifying in his view, setting up a stalemate with the upper chamber over his nominees in blue states.
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This is in response to the recent story about not worrying about tick bites and allergies to red meat. I have been diagnosed with AGS — Alpha Gal Syndrome — which is indeed being allergic to red meat from a tick bite. Studies now are indicating that the blacklegged tick, also known as a deer tick, can carry this also.
I’m now in my third year with this allergy and the case has been medically confirmed with my VA doctor and documented with the CDC. The tick definitely originated from Vassalboro with no out-of-state travel done during this time period. I do self-checks every time out but managed to miss this one between my pinky toe and the fourth toe. I did not seek medical treatment thinking that it was a dog tick and I watched the bite site for weeks.
When in doubt, remove the tick safely and save it for the doctor’s visit.
Robert Rooney
Vassalboro
Massachusetts
Massachusetts man, 70, accused of trying to drown jet skier, 21, in chaotic lake fight
A 70-year-old Massachusetts man allegedly tried to drown an injured 21-year-old during a violent clash over a jet ski at a community lake boat ramp in a chaotic, caught-on-camera brawl.
Steven Dana is accused of attempted murder, strangulation, and assault and battery on a disabled person for the alleged attack on Matthew Duffy at Lake Maspenock’s Sandy Beach in Hopkinton, Mass., on Wednesday.
Duffy and his friends were using the boat ramp with their jet ski when Dana, a resident on the lake, became agitated by the noise coming from the motorized craft and attempted to kick the group out of the water, according to a police report viewed by WCVB.
Duffy has been using crutches to get around after he was severely injured in an accident a few months ago.
The group of friends had been recording the interaction with Dana on a GoPro when the older man became increasingly upset during the confrontation with Duffy, according to the video obtained by the outlet.
“Let me have fun with my jetski,” Duffy told Dana, who told the younger man to take the craft to another lake.
Duffy refused and claimed he lived nearby and was allowed to use the lake. Some of the younger lake users began to egg Dana on, saying, “You’re not going to do s–t.”
Dana threatened to call the police “again” before asking if Duffy wanted “me to shoot you.”
The older man walked down to Duffy, who had been standing at the lakeside, and got into the 21-year-old’s face.
“Are you going to beat up a cripple?” one of Duffy’s friends asked the heated man.
“I don’t care, I’ll take a cripple.” Dana said, according to the video.
Dana slapped Duffy across the face before the two grappled each other and fell into the lake, as one of Duffy’s friends drove off with the jet ski.
Dana was filmed allegedly holding Duffy under the water as three other men showed up and separated the pair.
“I was so scared for my life because I can’t fight back, I broke practically everything and this guy’s on top of me under the water, I can’t see what’s going on, I can’t fight back,” Duffy told WCVB.
Both men refused medical attention after the scuffle.
Dana was arraigned in Framingham District Court on Thursday and initially held without bail, but a judge on Friday released him on a $7,500 cash bond, according to NBC 10 Boston.
“I’m fuming that he’s out now. This is insane. He just tried killing me two days ago, and then it’s like, apparently you can just pay bond, and it’s wiped clean,” Duffy told the outlet. “When he toppled on me in the water, there was nothing I could do.”
“He literally came up to me and my friends, and was instantly being aggressive and rude for no reason, in trying to kick us out of a public space,” Duffy said. “We weren’t having it, so we weren’t moving, and then he eventually came down after we were arguing with each other, and then more arguing led to him attacking me and then shoving me in the water, and I needed my friends to help me get up.”
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