Alina Habba sworn in as interim US attorney for New Jersey
Alina Habba, a White House counselor who was previously a personal lawyer for President Trump, was sworn in Friday as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor.
A staunch defender of the president in the courtroom and in the media, Habba represented Trump in high-stakes New York civil trials including in his business fraud case and the defamation and sexual assault lawsuits brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
Ahead of Habba's swearing-in in the Oval Office, Trump said she helped “spearhead” the effort to “defeat the corrupt and grotesque weaponization of our justice system.” He tapped her for the role Monday.
“She'll be as good as it gets,” Trump said, before Attorney General Pam Bondi swore Habba in.
A New Jersey native and first-generation American, Habba entered Trump’s orbit when she took over a defamation lawsuit brought against Trump by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, who later dropped the case.
In a different lawsuit against Trump’s 2016 presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, and dozens of other defendants, Habba was sanctioned nearly $1 million by a federal judge for a “continuing pattern of misuse of the courts.”
She emerged as a fierce media surrogate for Trump while representing him in his New York civil fraud case, where he was ordered to pay $454 million for falsely inflating his net worth, and the defamation and sexual assault lawsuits brought by Carroll, who won nearly $100 million at two jury trials.
She later became Trump’s legal spokesperson and a senior adviser to his campaign, before joining the White House as a counselor to the president.
Typically, U.S. attorneys are appointed by the president and then confirmed by the Senate, but the president can appoint an interim top federal prosecutor when there is a vacancy.
Habba said Friday that she and the president had been through “some very dark days” together, when she “lost faith” in the justice system as he faced criminal prosecution and a flurry of civil litigation.
"This man kept fighting for America, and I'm just so honored that now I get to fight for the state of New Jersey,” Habba said. “I will do a good job. I will clean it up. We're going to make New Jersey great again.”