New top prosecutor named to replace Alina Habba at US attorney’s office in New Jersey

A new top federal prosecutor has been named to lead the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey following months of disarray after its former leader, Alina Habba, was found to have been unlawfully serving in the role.

Robert Frazer, a career prosecutor in the office for more than two decades, was tapped to lead the office by district judges, according to a terse order posted to the U.S. District Court for New Jersey’s website.

The Justice Department also confirmed the appointment in court filings that said the decision followed consultations between the federal court and senior DOJ leadership.

“Consultations the Government had represented to the Court the Administration was willing to pursue,” the filing read.

Habba celebrated the new pick minutes after the announcement was made, saying New Jersey “deserves a great chief federal law enforcement official who is in line with President Trump’s agenda of making this country safe and NJ great.”

She also said “THINGS GET DONE” when judges work with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Frazer will replace a trio of prosecutors that took over the office in December after Habba resigned. However, that leadership structure was also unlawful, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann ruled earlier this month.

Brann previously disqualified Habba after finding that her tenure turned unlawful when she remained in the role after her 120-day interim term expired, despite the “novel series of legal and personnel moves” the administration took to keep her in the job.    

Habba has said that, should a higher court eventually side with her, she may seek to return to lead the federal prosecuting office.

Several of Trump’s preferred U.S. attorney picks have faced challenges in other districts as their Senate confirmations have stalled, resulting in disqualifications.  

It’s pit the courts against the Trump administration, as federal vacancy law leaves the task up to district judges, but administration officials say Trump alone has the authority to select U.S. attorneys, even after their temporary terms expire.

Trump and his allies have cast blame on the Senate blue slip process that allows home-state senators to veto presidential nominees to district courts and U.S. attorney offices, giving them more influence over the process.

Just 30 districts are currently led by U.S. attorneys who were greenlighted by the Senate, according to a list on tthe DOJ’s website.  

Habba was the first of Trump’s loyalist prosecutors to be found unlawfully serving in her post, but since then, U.S. attorneys in Nevada, California, New York and Virginia have also been disqualified. U.S. attorneys in other states have also seen judges decline to extend their tenures past their interim or acting terms.

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