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“But do not mistake compliance for surrender,” Habba said in the post.
Habba said she would take on a new role as senior adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi, focusing on U.S. Attorneys around the country. The Justice Department named three lawyers to split leadership of the office in New Jersey.
The Justice Department has not yet appealed the ruling, but Bondi said in a statement on Monday that it planned “to seek further review” of the decision and would reinstall Habba in the role if it were reversed. The department could ask either the U.S. Supreme Court or the full Third Circuit court to intervene.
Habba and Bondi both criticized federal judges in New Jersey for declining to extend Habba’s appointment and pausing criminal cases after courts disqualified Habba from supervising them. Habba touted what she said was a decline in violent crime in major New Jersey cities and accused the courts of becoming “weapons for the politicized left.”
Federal law allows federal trial courts to name a replacement if an interim U.S. Attorney is not confirmed by the Senate after 120 days in the post, which happened in Habba’s case.
The three-judge panel that deemed Habba’s appointment unlawful included two appointees of Republican President George W. Bush and one nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama.
Reporting by Jasper Ward and Andrew Goudsward; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Ryan Patrick Jones and Cynthia Osterman
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