Trump-Picked Prosecutor in Delaware Resigns After Court Ruling

The Justice Department’s acting US attorney in Delaware announced Friday she would step down from the role, the second resignation of a top prosecutor this week as federal judges scrutinize the Trump administration’s appointments.

Julianne Murray, a former Delaware GOP party chair, announced she would resign following the Dec. 1 ruling from a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that the Trump administration unlawfully installed Alina Habba as acting US attorney in New Jersey. The Third Circuit’s jurisdiction also includes Delaware.

“I cannot in good conscience allow my office to become a political football,” Murray said in an X post, adding that her office’s first assistant US attorney, Ben Wallace, will take over leadership of her office.

Murray’s announcement comes days after Habba, a former personal lawyer for Trump, stepped down from her role as the Trump administration weighs an appeal of the Third Circuit’s ruling. Habba is one of six US attorneys whose appointments have faced legal challenges, with federal courts so far ruling that four have been unlawfully installed.

While Murray’s appointment hasn’t been the subject of a legal challenge, a federal judge in Delaware declined to appoint her to continue leading the office after her 120-day interim term expired in November. DOJ subsequently named her “acting” US attorney, repeating a move by the administration to keep its picks for top prosecutors in place when they’ve failed to secure a district court’s backing or Senate confirmation.

Murray, who has not been formally nominated by the Trump administration, accused her home state senators—Democrats Chris Coons and Lisa Blunt Rochester—of blocking her chances of consideration in the Senate.

“The highly politicized, flawed blue slip tradition is costing Delaware a U.S. Attorney and is affecting the country as a whole,” Murray said in her X post, referring to the process home-state senators use to voice support or opposition to a judicial nominee.

Coons reacted to Murray’s resignation in a statement Friday, saying he was “grateful to Julianne Murray for her service and for her work to keep all Delawareans safe.”

The senator said he and Blunt Rochester interviewed Murray earlier this year as they were considering recommendations for a US attorney nominee but “did not feel that Ms. Murray was the right person to lead the office.”

“Had she been nominated for the permanent position, I would not have returned my blue slip,” Coons said.

Trump and his supporters have called for the eradication of the blue slip process, accusing Democrats of using it to block his nominations from moving forward.

Habba voiced her support for Murray on Friday, writing in an X post that Murray “served Delaware with dignity and focus on one mission- taking down crime.”

“The political machine is attempting to erode the basic principals of our Department of Justice and separation of powers due to a broken tradition in Senate and rogue judges in blue states,” Habba wrote.

The future of another of Trump’s US attorney picks, Pete Serrano in the Eastern District of Washington, is also uncertain. Serrano’s interim term expired this week without judicial action to extend him, but his title has since been changed to “First Assistant and Special Attorney,” according to the office’s website.

Washington Sen. Patty Murray (D) criticized the move in a statement, accusing the Trump administration of “attempting a transparent end run around the Constitution and Congress by appointing Pete Serrano to a position he is not qualified to hold after the Eastern District declined to extend his tenure as U.S. Attorney.”