Court Reaches Deal With DOJ on New Jersey’s Next US Attorney (1)

A federal trial court has come to terms with the Justice Department on appointing a career prosecutor as New Jersey’s US attorney, substituting him for the Trump administration’s three-person leadership structure that’s been ruled illegal.

Robert Frazer, a senior trial counsel working organized crime cases out of Newark, has been picked as the office’s new US attorney, “effective today, March 23,” wrote New Jersey’s Chief District Court Judge Renée Marie Bumb, in an order posted on the court’s website Monday.

But unlike prior recent instances when judicially appointed US attorneys were rapidly fired by the White House, Frazer’s selection was approved by DOJ, a spokesperson said.

“The Department of Justice thanks the district court for working with the Department to appoint Robert Frazer to serve as US Attorney so that once again criminal prosecutions can resume without needless challenge or delay on behalf of the people of New Jersey,” the department spokesperson said in a statement.

A social media post from Trump’s original choice to run New Jersey’s US attorney’s office—Alina Habba—went a step further in praising Frazer for being in line with Trump’s agenda. Habba’s comments signal an effort to lower tensions, at least in this instance, between the executive and judiciary branches surrounding Trump maneuvers to install top prosecutors.

“When judges work with @AGPamBondi and @DAGToddBlanche under @POTUS to collaborate on serving what an overwhelming majority of Americans asked for at the ballots and not attack mindlessly for political gain THINGS GET DONE,” Habba wrote on X Monday.

Her post also stated, “I know Rob well and he will be a great champion of this state and mission of the @TheJusticeDept.”

Earlier this month, US District Judge Matthew Brann repudiated Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision in December to delegate the duties of running the US attorney’s office to three lawyers. Brann said the novel arrangement violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, the appointments clause of the US Constitution, and the law governing the duties of the job.

The stand off escalated the following week when a different federal judge in New Jersey angrily ordered the office’s triumvirate top officials to testify before him, saying the prosecutors “have lost the confidence and the trust” of the courts, lawyers and the public.

The agreement between DOJ and the court on the office’s new chief prosecutor comes after court-selected US attorneys in Eastern Virginia and Northern New York were quickly terminated by the White House, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announcing both removals on X the same day they’d been chosen.