New Jersey-based attorney Alina Habba hit the nation’s radar back in 2021, becoming President-elect Trump’s fierce legal defender and then spokeswoman as he battled an onslaught of legal cases and criminal charges ahead of his decisive win against Vice President Kamala Harris last month. 

Now, Habba is readying to take on a new role: counselor to the president under Trump’s second administration. 

“Alina has been a tireless advocate for Justice, a fierce Defender of the Rule of Law, and an invaluable Advisor to my Campaign and Transition Team,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social last week, announcing her new role. “She has been unwavering in her loyalty, and unmatched in her resolve – standing with me through numerous ‘trials,’ battles, and countless days in court.”

Following the once and future president’s announcement, Fox News Digital took a look back at Habba’s legal career and meteoric rise in Trump’s orbit and, now, the White House. 

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Habba is the managing partner of Habba Madaio & Associates LLP, a law firm based in Bedminster, New Jersey, that also practices in New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Habba, 40, is a New Jersey native, ​​born to Chaldean Catholic Iraqi immigrant parents. She attended Lehigh University in Pennsylvania as an undergraduate before earning her J.D. from Widener University. 

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“As a devout Catholic, a proud first generation Arab American woman, and a feisty Jersey girl who’s fed up with far-left corruption in Washington – President Trump championed my journey, empowering me to become who I am today. His unwavering support not only shaped my career but has inspired other young women with big dreams,” Habba declared in her RNC speech in July from Milwaukee. 

Ahead of joining Trump’s legal team, Habba litigated cases related to negligent nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also earned recognition on the Super Lawyers Rising Stars List between 2016-2022, as well as a spot on the “Top 100 Lawyers in America” list, and has supported a handful of charity efforts, including a charity that benefits pregnant homeless women, Birth Haven. 

Former President Trump returns from a lunch break for his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 28, 2024, in New York City. (Julia Nikhinson-Pool/Getty Images)

Habba has seen a meteoric rise to national prominence in recent years, after Trump hired her in 2021 to help litigate a barrage of cases leveled at him ahead of the 2024 election, becoming his legal spokesperson and trusted adviser. 

Habba hit the Trump legal scene when she spearheaded a lawsuit against the former and upcoming president’s niece, Mary Trump, and the New York Times for “tortiously breaching and/or interfering with his contractual rights and otherwise maliciously conspiring against him” to obtain and publish his tax records in 2018.

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Habba’s legal successes for Trump include former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos dropping a defamation suit against Trump in 2021 and the dismissal of another case related to New York state-level charges over allegations Trump and the Trump Organization were involved in a fraudulent marketing company. She also notched a win earlier this year when the Supreme Court dismissed ex-lawyer Michael Cohen’s appeal to revive a lawsuit against Trump as he sought monetary damages over his 2020 imprisonment related to lying to Congress and his previous work for Trump.

​​”Michael Cohen has exhausted every avenue of his pathetic attempt to drag my client into court time and time again.  As expected, the Supreme Court has correctly denied Michael Cohen’s petition and he must finally abandon his frivolous and desperate claims,”Habba told Fox News Digital in a statement in October. 

Alina Habba has served as Trump’s legal adviser. (Getty Images)

Habba’s national name recognition grew as Trump battled the E. Jean Carroll cases. 

Carroll, who previously worked as a columnist for Elle magazine, had filed two lawsuits against Trump since 2019, when she first accused him of raping her in an excerpt in her book “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal.” Trump vehemently denied the allegation, saying, “it never happened,” ultimately leading Carroll to sue Trump for defamation when he was still president. At the time, she was barred by the statute of limitations from suing him over the underlying rape allegation.

A jury would eventually find Trump had sexually abused Carroll and that, in denying it, defamed her, awarding her $5 million. But while that case was tied up in appeals, and with Trump continuing to deny ever even meeting Carroll, she filed another suit in 2022 alleging both defamation and rape. She was able to do this because earlier that year, New York had passed a law that allowed sex abuse plaintiffs to file a one-time civil case despite the expiration of the statute of limitations. 

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Habba joined the Trump legal team for the second case, in which the former president was accused of rape and defamation for social media posts in which Trump denied the allegations and accused Carroll of promoting a “hoax and a lie.” 

Trump was never criminally charged with sexual assault, and the initial jury found him liable for sexual abuse – though not rape. The jury specifically said Carroll hadn’t proven that Trump raped her.

The second case sought more than $10 million for damage to her reputation stemming from Trump’s comments in 2019, when he was still president. The jury ultimately awarded her $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages.

“I have sat on trial after trial for months in this state, the state of New York, Attorney General Letitia James and now this. Weeks, weeks. Why? Because President Trump is leading in the polls and now we see what you get in New York,” Habba said earlier this year following the verdict. 

“So don’t get it twisted,” she continued, calling the case evidence of the “violation of our justice system.” “I am so proud to stand with President Trump. But I am not proud to stand with what I saw in that courtroom.”

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Trump attorney Alina Habba was named Trump’s counselor to the president for his second administration. (Fox Digital )

Habba also battled New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud suit – one of Trump’s most high-profile cases that the AG has refused to dismiss after Trump’s electoral win. 

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James announced an investigation into the Trump Organization, claiming there was evidence indicating that the president and his company had falsely valued assets to obtain loans, insurance coverage and tax deductions. 

Both inside the courtroom, during press conferences and in media interviews, Habba defended Trump against James’ case. 

Alina Habba speaks at a campaign rally for former President Trump at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 29, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

“​​Letitia James is putting her nose into private companies and private individuals’ work, which is not what is meant to happen and the law that she’s using is a consumer fraud law. So that she can establish some way to have control, to not have a jury to do certain things in this case that are nonsensical and shouldn’t be happening and we have been fighting it all along the way. The problem we have is the judge is the one that’s going make those decisions and he’s proven himself to be quite motivated by the other side,” Habba said on “Sunday Morning Futures” with host Maria Bartiromo last year. 

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Trump and his legal team charged that James had conducted a “witch hunt” against him after she explicitly campaigned on a platform to prosecute the president. Trump and his family denied any wrongdoing, with the former president saying his assets had been undervalued. 

Alina Habba arrives at court for opening statements in former President Trump’s trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 22, 2024, in New York City. (Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images)

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in September of last year in the non-jury trial that Trump and his organization had deceived lenders by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth. Trump’s team called on James to drop the case following his election last month, which she rejected on Dec. 10. 

Former President Trump speaks during a campaign event, Sept. 25, 2024, in Mint Hill, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Following the announcement that Habba will serve as counselor to the president, conservatives and supporters of Trump have touted Habba’s fiery defense of him over the last few years. 

“I have sat with President Trump for years now while he has been targeted with lies and with judges, AGs, and DAs who have specifically run in this city and others on getting Trump,” Habba said during a press conference in January following the Carroll verdict, rounding up the bevy of court cases Trump faced following his first administration. 

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“The Trump administration will fix this problem. We will stop Kamala Harris’s regime – because she was there, let’s not forget that, and she still is – of using officials from the White House, putting them in DAs’ offices and AGs’ offices, and attacking your political opponent,” she continued. 

Habba also delivered a powerful speech at the RNC in July – following Trump’s first assassination attempt – that has been revived this month for her emotional tone when she described her tight relationship with Trump. 

“To my husband, whose family survived the Holocaust, [Trump] is a champion of the Jewish faith. To my Iraqi parents, he is a mentor to their daughter,” she said from the RNC. 

“But to me, he is my friend.”

Former President Trump and Alina Habba during a trial at New York State Supreme Court in New York, on Oct. 17, 2023. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In Trump’s first administration, the counselor to the president role was filled by Fox News contributor Kellyanne Conway. The role entails advising the president on all legal matters related to the office of the president and the White House. 

Habba joined Fox News’ Martha MacCallum last week, where she previewed that her new role will focus on “all things that we need to do to fix this country.”

“First and foremost, anybody asked to serve this country in such an honorable role or any role, frankly, it’s a responsibility that I take very seriously, but an honor. I told the president, I am there to do whatever it is you need me to do, and that’s the truth. But I will say what a great privilege I will be there to advise. I will be there to help with policies that are important. I know that for me, obviously lawfare and all of the things that Pam Bondi is going to focus on are top of mind because of what we’ve lived for the last three and a half years. But I will tell you I’m ready to get to work, and that’s on all things that we need to do to fix this country,” Habba said. 

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom, Brooke Singman and Greg Wehner contributed to this report. 

The details surrounding the emergency spending bill are expected to be delayed and may “slip by a day” as the deadline to avoid a government shutdown looms.

Lawmarkers were expected to share the text of the emergency spending bill to avoid a government shutdown and address disaster relief on Sunday, but Fox News is told the text “may slip by a day.”

It comes as both House and Senate lawmakers negotiate over how large the disaster aid package should be, and whether it should be attached to an end-of-year federal funding bill that’s critical to avoiding a partial government shutdown during the holiday season.

This could pose a problem because government funding expires at 11:59:59 p.m. on Friday. Pushing this back means the House may not be able to process the bill until the end of the week. 

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It is also noted that it doesn’t take much for the Senate to slow things down if senators demand time. 

The House has a so-called “three-day rule” which requires text to be posted for three days before debate and vote. However, waiting until tomorrow means the House may not consider the bill until Thursday or Friday – the peak of the deadline. 

Fox News is told there are no hold-ups with government funding, through mid-March, or the disaster package for Hurricanes Helene, Milton, wildfires in Maui, the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore and tornadoes in the Midwest, but that there is an issue with agricultural provisions “and other things important to leaders on both sides.”

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President Biden wrote to Speaker Mike Johnson about disaster aid after Helene and Milton. (Getty Images)

One source declined to answer when Fox was asked if there was an effort to tuck last-minute provisions into the catch-all measure for Syria or drones. 

In early October, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Fox News Digital that Helene would likely be “one of the most expensive storms that the country has ever encountered.”

The Biden administration has asked for over $100 billion in funding for disaster aid in the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton.

The ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus is calling on Republican leaders to reject President Biden’s disaster aid request.

President Biden, accompanied by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm (R), gives an update on the government’s response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on October 11, 2024, in Washington, D.C.

The group is demanding a slimmed-down package covering what is “absolutely necessary,” to be offset with spending cuts elsewhere.

“Congress should not pass a whopping $100 billion unpaid disaster supplemental funding bill — that Democrats will use to cement their own unrelated priorities — in the waning days of Democrat control in Washington right before Republicans take control of the White House and both Chambers,” the House Freedom Caucus statement read.

“The House should consider only what is absolutely necessary right now to provide critical relief to hurricane victims and farmers, and pay for it with offsets from wasteful spending elsewhere in the government, then wait for President Trump to take office to better manage disaster relief.”

If new spending is not approved by way of appropriations bills or a stopgap measure, a partial government shutdown could happen before Christmas. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped several Californians — including former San Joaquin Valley congressman Devin Nunes — for posts in his next administration.

Nunes, a Republican and former dairy farmer from Tulare, resigned his House seat after nearly two decades in 2022 to become chief executive of Trump Media & Technology Group, which is the parent company of the president-elect’s Truth Social platform. On Saturday, Trump announced on the platform that he had selected Nunes to serve as chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

The board “exists exclusively to provide the President with an independent source of advice” on intelligence matters, and “has access to all information necessary to perform its functions,” according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Its members do not require Senate confirmation.

Trump wrote that Nunes would use his experience as former chair of the House Intelligence Committee “and his key role in exposing the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax” to provide Trump with “independent assessments of the effectiveness and propriety” of actions taken by the U.S. intelligence agencies.

Nunes was a staunch ally of Trump throughout the House’s investigation into ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, which Nunes helped lead given his intelligence committee post. He dismissed various connections between Trump campaign officials and Russian assets even as now-Sen. Adam B. Schiff — a Democrat from California on the intelligence committee — alleged Trump’s team had colluded with the Russians and the Justice Department pursued its own investigation.

Trump said Nunes would maintain his CEO position with Trump Media. Trump has also nominated other Trump Media officials to prominent posts in his administration — including pro wrestling mogul Linda McMahon, his pick for Education secretary, and Kash Patel, his pick for FBI director.

Patel is a former staffer on the House Intelligence Committee under Nunes, and a fellow Trump loyalist.

Nunes wrote on Truth Social that he was “looking forward to serving our great nation again” under Trump. On Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Nunes sang Patel’s praises and said they would work together — with Trump’s other justice and intelligence nominees — to “restore integrity back into” the system.

“It’s critical to do what the president wants to do, what he promised the American people, [which] is to get these agencies focused on going after bad guys and keeping Americans safe,” Nunes said.

Trump also on Saturday named Richard “Ric” Grenell, another loyalist from California, as his “envoy for special missions” — a role that does not currently exist.

Grenell, who during Trump’s first term served as acting director of national intelligence and as ambassador to Germany, previously worked at the United Nations Security Council.

Trump said Grenell “will work in some of the hottest spots around the World, including Venezuela and North Korea,” and “will continue to fight for Peace through Strength, and always put AMERICA FIRST.”

Grenell called working under Trump “an honor of a lifetime” in a post on X.

“President Trump is a problem solver who keeps Americans safe and prosperous,” he wrote. “We have so much to do. Let’s get to work.”

Grenell is a firebrand known for his caustic attacks on social media. He was heavily criticized by German officials while ambassador — one called him “a biased propaganda machine” — and his appointment as acting national intelligence director during Trump’s first term was met with scorn from Democrats, who said he lacked the intelligence experience necessary for the post.

Grenell, who has a home in Palm Springs and previously taught at the USC Annenberg School of Communication, has also drawn both support and derision from California lawmakers.

Grenell, who is gay, has been flagged as anti-LGBTQ+ by queer rights groups for railing against transgender youth rights and the Equality Act. When California Republicans honored Grenell on the California Senate floor in the name of Pride Month in 2023, several Democrats walked off the floor in protest — including gay state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who called Grenell “a guy who is truly a self-hating gay man, who takes tons of anti-LGBTQ positions.”

Trump on Saturday also nominated former Los Alamitos Mayor Troy Edgar to serve as deputy secretary of Homeland Security.

Edgar, an IBM executive, previously served in Trump’s first term as chief financial officer and as associate deputy undersecretary of management for Homeland Security.

In a Truth Social post announcing his selection, Trump credited Edgar with helping to lead a “revolt” against sanctuary cities as mayor of Los Alamitos, a tiny Orange County city.

“I am very excited to have Troy on our team, as he will help us Make America Great Again!” Trump wrote.

The California Values Act, which took effect Jan. 1, 2018, restricts local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration officials in many cases. Edgar and other Los Alamitos officials approved an ordinance that tried to exempt the city from the state law — galvanizing support from other conservative officials in the state and drawing the attention of Trump, who invited Edgar to the White House.

The Trump administration sued to block the California law, but the Supreme Court rejected the challenge in 2020, leaving the law intact.