Things continue to be deeply weird and shambolic in the U.S. attorney’s office for the district of New Jersey.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi threw the head of the appeals division, Mark Coyne, out of his courtroom, demanding that the leaders of that office—whoever they may be right now— show up and explain who, exactly, is running things.
Is it Alina Habba?
No, really. The onetime personal lawyer to Donald Trump who was then appointed interim U.S. attorney has been spotted roaming the halls of the New Jersey office, a wildly inappropriate move given that both a district court and an appellate court found that she was not lawfully serving in her job.
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But during the same hearing where Judge Quraishi threw Coyne out, he also quizzed another prosecutor from the office about whether Habba still had a role there.
Habba finally resigned from the U.S. attorney’s office in December, ostensibly leaving to be senior adviser to the attorney general for U.S. attorneys.
Yes, that’s a made-up role, one where Habba is supposed to be Attorney General Pam Bondi’s adviser about prosecutors nationwide. In accepting this pretend gig, Habba declared that “My fight will now stretch across the country.”
When asked for a comment about her position, Habba’s answer was very carefully worded.
“I’m not the U.S. attorney anymore. I left my post,” she said.
Okay, you didn’t “leave” your post. The courts threw you out. And second, you were never ever the U.S attorney, only an interim one who was never confirmed by the Senate.
But catch that extremely specific language: She’s not “the U.S. attorney” any longer. That’s not a denial that she has some other role at the New Jersey office.
So perhaps her “fight,” whatever that is, has taken her back to New Jersey? Wherever Habba may roam, she can take comfort in the fact that she isn’t the only one in the hot seat there.
Judge Quraishi is also requiring that the New Jersey Three—the triumvirate of attorneys that Bondi smugly named to run the New Jersey office after Habba finally left—show up and explain who is running things.
This unholy threesome was Bondi’s latest attempt at One Weird Trick that would allow Trump to keep lackeys in U.S. attorney roles without ever getting Senate confirmation. But U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann—the same judge who said Habba was illegally in her role—threw out the triumvirate on basically the same grounds just a couple of weeks ago.
So now we have a U.S. attorney’s office that often handles major cases just floating along—all vibes, no leader.
Judges are furious with Bondi’s reindeer games for two reasons. First, they have to keep addressing this parade of illegal appointments, telling the Department of Justice again and again that Trump is not able to string together temporary appointments to keep his unqualified stooges in their roles forever.
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It also means judges have to deal with defendants challenging their criminal cases because it appears there is no one legally minding the shop at the U.S. attorney’s office.
And now, Judge Brann told the DOJ outright that those defendants might be in luck if the administration does not get it together in New Jersey.
“The Government is warned that any further attempts to unlawfully fill the office will result in dismissals of pending cases,” Brann wrote.
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the administration has no interest in the normal, everyday work of the U.S. attorneys’ offices. Trump wants his loyalists in key places to bring cases against his enemies, and that’s all he really cares about.
Meanwhile, actual cases against actual criminals will continue to fall by the wayside. That’s some “law and order” presidency.
Lisa Needham March 17, 2026 at 11:30PM From Daily Kos
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