President Donald Trump continues to have problems with judges, but the following situation was a bit different.
The initial 120-day term for Alina Habba as acting U.S. Attorney in New Jersey was coming up to its expiration date, with district judges having the option to make her appointment permanent.
The judges declined, appointing Habba’s first assistant instead, but the Department of Justice had a little something to say about that.
Fired…
We are clearly seeing a power struggle take place between this administration and the federal judiciary.
Rather than confirming Trump’s judge and approving Habba, the judges elevated Desiree Grace, who was then slated to take over the position.
Habba has no support from the two sitting New Jersey senators, so her permanent appointment has little hope of getting out of committee.
The only avenue she had left was to have the judiciary panel approve her to stay on the job, and with her background as one of Trump’s personal attorneys prior to joining the administration, that was unlikely to happen.
The elevation of Grace, however, was short-lived, as the administration swiftly terminated her from her position in response to the news.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, after firing Grace, announced, “This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers.”
Grace has been in the DOJ’s New Jersey office for nine years, having taken charge of the criminal division, so she is capable, but the administration was clearly not going to tolerate Trump’s hand-picked appointment being overlooked.
Todd Blanche, another member of Trump’s personal legal team who has found his way into the administration, also responded.
He said, “When judges act like activists, they undermine confidence in our justice system. Alina is President Trump’s choice to lead — and no partisan bench can override that.”
Since becoming the top prosecutor in New Jersey, Habba has tried to prosecute Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for trespassing at an ICE facility, and she secured a grand jury indictment against Rep. LaMonica Iver for allegedly assaulting law enforcement.
My guess is that those two cases are what led to her dismissal from the panel of judges.
Habba also got Democrats’ attention by going after sanctuary cities in the state, which I am sure also did not go over too well when it came time to review her appointment.
It will be interesting to see how all this plays out as we move forward with an administration that has no qualms about drawing a line in the sand.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: G. McConway
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.conservativejournalreview.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
