Alina Habba’s tenure as an interim U.S. attorney was, by any fair measure, a multifaceted disaster. It also wasn’t altogether legal.
As my MS NOW colleague Jordan Rubin explained, a federal appellate panel ruled Monday that a district court was correct to disqualify Habba as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, “dealing the Trump administration its latest loss on an issue that’s pending in U.S. attorney’s offices around the country.”
It was the second piece of discouraging news Donald Trump’s former lawyer received in just five days. Politico reported last week:
A federal appeals court has upheld a penalty of nearly $1 million against President Donald Trump and attorney Alina Habba, concluding they committed ‘sanctionable conduct’ by filing a frivolous lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey. ‘Many of Trump’s and Habba’s legal arguments were indeed frivolous,’ 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge William Pryor Jr. wrote for a unanimous, three-judge panel, including Trump appointee Andrew Brasher and Biden appointee Embry Kidd.
For those who might need a refresher, in March 2022, Habba helped file a truly bizarre lawsuit that targeted Hillary Clinton and several other Democrats, which was absurd even by Team Trump’s standards. As a Washington Post analysis explained after the case was filed, “From the very beginning of Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and a smattering of nearly 50 others, it becomes abundantly clear what this is about — and it’s not about winning a legal judgment. … This is a press release.”
The Post’s report added that the Republican litigation “contains a veritable smorgasbord of debunked and conspiratorial assertions,” as well as “false claims, errors and dubious inferences.”
The case proved so ridiculous that a judge imposed harsh sanctions on Habba for bringing “political grievances masquerading as legal claims” to court.
“This case should never have been brought,” the judge added. “Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it.” Habba filed it anyway, which is why she was punished with sanctions. She appealed the penalty, only to have a three-judge panel — featuring two jurists appointed by Republican presidents — confirm that she deserved the punishment. In the recent past, such developments would’ve left Habba’s legal reputation in tatters. In 2025, her relationship with the White House will likely remain unchanged, and Habba will remain a fixture on conservative media, as if she were still a credible attorney in good standing. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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