MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
There is a legal fight underway right now in New Jersey. The Trump administration is attempting to keep one of the president's former personal attorneys as the top federal prosecutor in the state. The fight has now reached the point that it has brought many federal court proceedings across the state to a halt. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is following this one. Hey, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Hi there.
KELLY: This one sounds complicated. What is at the heart of this fight?
LUCAS: Well, it all revolves around Trump's former personal attorney Alina Habba. You could remember her from the big rally that Trump had at Madison Square Garden right before the election. Habba walked out in a red jumpsuit. She had a sequin jacket with MAGA in big, red letters on the back, and she spoke to the crowd that night. Here's a bit of what she said.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ALINA HABBA: Are you ready to make history tonight and make some liberals cry?
LUCAS: That gives you a bit of a sense of who she is. Now, this March, Trump appointed her the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey but on an interim basis. You can only serve on an interim basis for 120 days. To stay beyond that, she would need to be confirmed by the Senate. Trump nominated her, but she has not been confirmed. And so this month, as her tenure was about to expire, a panel of federal judges in New Jersey voted not to keep Habba in place. Instead, they appointed somebody else. Courts have long had the authority to do this. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's not that unusual. And in this instance, the judges tapped a well-respected senior career Justice Department attorney named Dessie (ph) Grace in New Jersey for this top role.
KELLY: And I think it's safe to say this is not going down well with the Trump administration. Given that, the Justice Department has now lashed out at the court. They're calling the judges activists and accused them of trying to implement a lefty - leftist agenda.
LUCAS: That's right. That's right. And the Justice Department didn't offer any evidence on that, but it also didn't stop at lobbing allegations at the court. It took a series of steps to try to put Habba back into the job. Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the career prosecutor that the court had tapped to replace Habba, meaning that the top job in the U.S. Attorney's office would then be vacant. And Bondi then appointed Habba as the No. 2 official in the U.S. Attorney's office. And because the top job, as I said, was vacant, by default, that means that Habba steps up as the de facto acting U.S. attorney.
KELLY: (Laughter) So is Habba in charge or not? Where does this all stand?
LUCAS: Well, the Justice Department says that Habba is indeed back in charge. Habba herself has posted on social media that she is now the acting U.S. attorney. But there are a lot of questions about whether the administration's moves here are legal and whether Habba has the authority to act as the top federal prosecutor in the state. So this is - needless to say, this is a very messy situation.
It's already causing uncertainty across the federal courts in New Jersey. We're already seeing ripple effects. This week, for example, a defendant in a criminal case in New Jersey, who was supposed to go on trial next week, asked the court to dismiss the case against him because he says Habbas appointment is unlawful. A judge is in the process of sorting all of that out. I've spoken with a couple of criminal defense attorneys in New Jersey. One told me that, as far as he can tell, all federal court proceedings have stopped in the state except for bail hearings.
KELLY: Ryan, this is a messy fight, as you said, but it is about one U.S. attorney in one state. What's the bigger picture?
LUCAS: Well, there are two things here. One, there's a political fight over Trump's picks for U.S. attorney jobs broadly speaking, which has slowed down the confirmation process across the board. But this fight over Habba stands out because of how the administration has responded. It's lashed out at the entire federal bench in New Jersey. Of course, that echoes the sort of attacks that we've seen against judges across the country who have ruled against the administration. And in this instance, the administration is using a questionable workaround to try to get its way. That is now under legal challenge, and we'll just have to see how it all plays out.
KELLY: NPR's Ryan Lucas, thanks.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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