Dem
47
GOP
53
You are forgiven if you have lost track of what is going on in HabbaGate. On March 28, Donald Trump appointed his former (?) personal lawyer, Alina Habba, as interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Interim appointments are valid for only 120 days. In this case, the clock started in early March. On June 30, Trump nominated her to be the permanent U.S. attorney of New Jersey, but the Senate has not yet voted to confirm her because both U.S. senators from the state oppose her nomination and have not returned the "blue slip."
On July 22, the U.S. District Court of New Jersey invoked its statutory power to replace her and appoint a new U.S. attorney. It picked her deputy, Desiree Leigh Grace, a long-time prosecutor. AG Pam Bondi immediately fired Grace and named Habba to the vacant deputy position. Since there was no U.S. attorney, Habba suddenly became the acting U.S. attorney.
Then U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann, a Barack Obama appointee, ruled that the trick didn't count, Habba's 120-day interim period was up, and she was not legally the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey. He ruled that all her actions since July 1 were invalid. This led U.S. District Judge Esther Salas (another Obama appointee) to delay sentencing of a man named Marc Schessel, who was convicted of fleecing investors. The sentencing delay was on the grounds that Habba cannot take part in any of the cases the office handles because she is not legally the U.S. attorney, and all cases are formally in her name.
Lawyers for other defendants are already seeing their chance and jumping at it, claiming that all the indictments and other prosecutions done in Habba's name since July 1 are illegal and must be thrown out. Many garden-variety cases are going to be disrupted until a U.S. attorney is nominated and confirmed by the Senate, but as long as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) upholds the blue-slip tradition, Habba is not going to be confirmed.
The next step will probably be the DoJ appealing Brann's decision in the hopes of having the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overrule Brann. (V)