About an hour before #PamBondi’s social media post, Harrison Fields, a #WhiteHouse spox, said that #Trump had “full confidence in #AlinaHabba, whose work as acting #USattorney for the District of #NewJersey has made the Garden State & the nation safer.”

He added that the admin was looking forward to Habba’s confirmation in the #Senate. He did not respond to follow-up questions about why he expected Habba to be confirmed, given that NJ senators signaled they may block her confirmation.

The #judges’ decision, made after a private vote on Monday, had raised the possibility that the #NewJersey #USattorney would be an outlier in a #DOJ in which #Trump has insisted on loyalty. Ms. Grace, were she to become the US attorney, would still have to answer to top Justice ofcls in Washington — but the response from those officials on Tuesday seemed to indicate that even the prospect of leadership from someone who was not hand-selected by Trump was unacceptable.

“This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers,” #PamBondi wrote.

The rapid sequence of events raises the prospect of yet another confrontation between the #Trump admin & the federal #judiciary. Ms. Grace’s apparent removal from the office may not nullify the #judges’ decision to appoint her as the #NewJersey #USattorney, but is it unclear whether the judges will be able to enforce their appointment.

#Update

The leadership of the US attorney’s office in #NewJersey was thrown into confusion on Tuesday as top #Trump #DOJ officials pushed back after federal #judges in the state moved to appoint a new #USattorney.

Attorney General, #PamBondi, responded Tuesday evening with a social media post defending #AlinaHabba & saying that Desiree Leigh Grace “has just been removed.”

A panel of federal #judges in #NewJersey on Tues blocked #AlinaHabba from staying in the job as the state’s interim #USattorney and instead invoked a rarely used power to select a candidate of their own to take over as the state’s top federal prosecutor.

The judges announced that they appointed Desiree Leigh Grace, a seasoned prosecutor…. The appointment is effective as of Tues, acc/to an order signed by the district’s chief judge, Renée Marie Bumb.

During his time as interim #USattorney in #DC, #EdMartin in February demoted several prosecutors involved in the #Jan6 cases, including the attorney who served as chief of the Capitol Siege Section. Others demoted include 2 #lawyers who helped secure #SeditiousConspiracy convictions against #OathKeepers founder #StewartRhodes & former #ProudBoys national chairman #EnriqueTarrio.

…#EmilBove also faced sharp questions about his ordering the dismissal of #EricAdams’ corruption case, which led to the resignation of a top prosecutor in New York & several other #DOJ officials. #DanielleSassoon, then-interim #USattorney for the #SDNY, cited her objections to what she called a political “#QuidProQuo” with Adams’ legal team for the mayor to enforce #Trump’s #immigration policies only if he was freed from the looming prosecution.

#NationalGuard troops will arrive in #LosAngeles County within the next 24 hrs, the #Trump admin’s top law enforcement official in SoCal said, to *quell* #protests over #immigration enforcement that are “out of control.”

Bilal A. “Bill” Essayli, the interim #USattorney for the Central District of #California, said in an interview on Saturday night that the 2,000 troops were needed to keep the peace in the sprawling region.

#Trump's comments come 6 days after the #DOJ's new #pardon attorney, disgraced #DC #USattorney, under investigation by the #DCBar & #Jan6 advocate, #EdMartin Jr., said on a podcast he would take a "hard look" at pardoning the men he called "victims just like January 6," when Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol while Congress met to certify the Nov 2020 election results.

“The apparent rush in this case, culminating today in the embarrassing retraction of charges, suggests a failure to adequately investigate. Your office must operate with a higher standard than that,”Espinosa said.

Interim #USattorney #AlinaHabba has offered no explanation for her decision to drop the misdemeanor trespassing charge her office filed against Mayor #RasBaraka following his controversial arrest this month outside #DelaneyHall #immigration detention facility in #Newark.

“An arrest of a public figure is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action,” US Magistrate Judge Andre M. Espinosa told Assistant #USAttorney Stephen Demanovich during a virtual court hearing. “It should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate investigation of credible evidence.

…Paul J. Fishman, a lawyer for Rep. McIver, who previously served as #USattorney for the District of #NJ called the decision to charge the congresswoman “spectacularly inappropriate.”

“As a member of #Congress, she has the right & responsibility to see how #ICE is treating detainees. Rather than facilitating that inspection, ICE agents chose to escalate what should have been a peaceful situation into chaos.”