President Donald Trump spoke out against the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition after his handpicked U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Alina Habba, was forced to resign. Habba stepped down on Monday after a federal appeals court ruled she had been serving unlawfully.
Trump rails against ‘blue slip’ rules
Speaking to reporters, Trump criticized the Senate’s “blue slip” process. It’s a tradition that home-state senators must sign off on U.S. attorney picks. He said it’s making it “impossible” for him to keep his preferred prosecutors in place.
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“It’s a horrible thing. It makes it impossible to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney, and it’s a shame,” Trump said. He added that he “can’t appoint a U.S. attorney that’s not a Democrat” in some blue states because senators can effectively block his nominees.
“The Republicans should be ashamed of themselves that they allow this to go on,” he said.
Trump said that about seven of his U.S. attorneys “are not going to be able to keep their jobs much longer because of the blue slip.” He suggested he may just keep cycling through short-term acting picks.
“I guess I just have to keep appointing people for three months and then just appoint another one,” he said. “It’s a very sad situation… We’re losing a lot of great people.”
His comments came days after a three-judge panel on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the administration violated federal vacancy law with the legal maneuvers it used to keep Habba atop the U.S. attorney’s office.
Habba steps down in New Jersey, but not from DOJ
Habba is Trump’s former personal lawyer and had no prior criminal prosecution experience when she was appointed. She was installed as interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey in March on a 120-day basis. Local judges then declined to extend her tenure and instead tapped a career prosecutor. However, she remained in power through an unconventional series of moves.
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The appeals court ultimately ruled that she had been unlawfully serving and disqualified her from overseeing cases. It was a decision that had already frozen some plea hearings, trials, and sentences as judges waited for clarity.
In a statement posted to X, Habba said she was resigning “to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love.” She added, “Do not mistake compliance for surrender. This decision will not weaken the Justice Department, and it will not weaken me.”
Habba is not leaving the building entirely. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she will stay on as senior adviser to the attorney general for U.S. attorneys, effectively shifting to a Washington-based role overseeing prosecutors nationwide.
Bondi called the court’s decision “untenable” for Habba’s ability to run the office. She said the DOJ will seek further review of the ruling, and promised that if it’s reversed, Habba will return as U.S. attorney in New Jersey.
In the meantime, New Jersey won’t get a single new Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney. Instead, three existing officials will split Habba’s responsibilities, an unusual structure that could invite new legal challenges from defense attorneys.
