Trump’s Trio of NJ Successors to Habba Ruled Illegally Appointed

A US judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration illegally appointed a trio of lawyers to succeed Alina Habba after her resignation as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey.

US District Judge Matthew Brann issued a stinging repudiation of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision on Dec. 8 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.

Brann said that President Donald Trump and Bondi exceeded their legal authority again in appointing the three lawyers — Philip Lamparello, Jordan Fox and Ari Fontecchio. The same judge ruled last year that Habba had been appointed illegally after failing to get Senate confirmation.

Alina Habba

Photographer: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg

“One year into this administration, it is plain that President Trump and his top aides have chafed at the limits on their power set forth by law and the Constitution,” Brann wrote in a 130-page opinion. “To avoid these roadblocks, this administration frequently purports to have discovered enormous grants of executive power hidden in the vagaries and silences of the code.”

Trump “seeks the power to unilaterally appoint officers of his choosing to staff critical positions exercising vast authority Government-wide,” Brann wrote. But in this case, the Justice Department “dresses its argument in sheep’s wool of administrative necessity,” while “this wolf comes as a wolf.”

Lamparello declined to comment. Spokespeople for the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The judge put his ruling on hold to allow the Justice Department to appeal. Brann first ruled last August that Habba was illegally appointed. Habba stepped down in December, after an appeals court upheld his decision and ruled that the Department of Justice unlawfully named her as acting US attorney when her interim appointment expired after 120 days.

The decision is one of several around the country where federal judges have ruled that Trump’s administration failed to follow the law in making appointments of loyalists as US attorneys. Judges have ruled, for instance, that Trump illegally appointed US attorneys in Virginia, New York, California and Nevada.

As top federal prosecutors, US attorneys enforce Justice Department policy while overseeing criminal prosecutions and civil litigation.

Lawyers for two criminal defendants argued in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, that the setup illegally bypassed the president’s requirement to seek Senate confirmation of a US attorney. The challenges were filed by Raheel Naviwala and Daniel Torres. Naviwala was convicted at trial of a $100 million health care fraud and kickback scheme, and he awaits sentencing. Torres, who was convicted of cocaine distribution in 2015, faces a separate indictment accusing him of cocaine trafficking.

Brann denied Naviwala’s bid to dismiss his case but the judge said he will take further arguments on Torres’s request to toss his case.

The cases are US v. Naviwala, 24-cr-99, and US v. Torres, 24-378, US District Court, District of New Jersey (Newark).

To contact the reporter on this story:
David Voreacos in New York at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Ben Bain at bbain2@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth, Peter Blumberg

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