Alina Habba, the former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, resigned Monday as acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey after a federal appeals court ruled that she had been serving in the position unlawfully.
Habba, who has long been one of Trump’s most vocal legal defenders, said in a statement posted on X that she was stepping down to preserve “the stability and integrity of the office which I love.” She added, however, that her resignation should not be interpreted as conceding wrongdoing.
“Do not mistake compliance for surrender,” she wrote. “This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.”
Her departure creates uncertainty over who will lead the U.S. attorney’s office, which has been operating under the shadow of multiple legal challenges to Trump-era appointment practices.
Shortly after Habba’s announcement, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the department would seek further review of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision. If the ruling is reversed, Bondi said, Habba would return to her role.
Habba’s resignation comes a week after a three-judge panel determined that the Trump administration violated federal law by using a series of procedural maneuvers to install her as acting U.S. attorney without Senate confirmation. The court found that the strategy allowed an appointee to serve indefinitely while bypassing the constitutional confirmation process.
Speaking Sunday at the Kennedy Center Honors, Habba told CNN that the office would be “making an announcement soon,” calling the court ruling “a big problem” that affects “all sides of the coin and justice.”
Habba was the first Trump-appointed U.S. attorney whose installation faced a legal challenge. Since then, judges across the country have issued similar rulings against several other acting U.S. attorneys appointed through the same method.
The U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, was found to have been serving unlawfully, leading a judge to dismiss criminal cases she brought against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Courts also ruled that the acting U.S. attorneys in Nevada and the Central District of California had been improperly installed. In those cases — and in the New Jersey matters involving Habba — indictments were not dismissed, because other prosecutors had also participated in the cases.
Habba is the first to resign following such a ruling.
The legal uncertainty surrounding Habba’s appointment prompted delays earlier this year in New Jersey, with sentencings, plea deals and trial dates temporarily paused. Activity resumed after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche began co-signing charging documents and filings alongside Habba.
The Justice Department has not announced who will take over leadership of the office in the interim.