Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Three-Person Team for NJ Prosecutor Office

A federal judge has barred three Justice Department officials from jointly running New Jersey's federal prosecutor office, calling it an unconstitutional power grab. The 130-page ruling continues an ongoing legal battle over Trump administration appointments that bypass Senate confirmation requirements.

TRENTON, N.J. — A federal judge delivered a sharp rebuke to the Trump administration Monday, blocking three Justice Department officials from jointly overseeing New Jersey’s federal prosecutor office in what the court called an unconstitutional attempt to circumvent Senate approval.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann issued a blistering 130-page decision that marks another chapter in the ongoing legal battle between federal courts and President Donald Trump regarding the appointment process for U.S. attorneys, who typically must receive Senate confirmation to remain in their roles.

Last year, Judge Brann had already blocked Trump’s initial pick for U.S. attorney, former personal lawyer Alina Habba, ruling she had served beyond the legal time limit without Senate confirmation.

Monday’s decision rejected Attorney General Pam Bondi’s unprecedented move to install three Justice Department officials — Philip Lamparello, Jordan Fox and Ari Fontecchio — to collectively run the office that Habba had previously overseen on a temporary basis.

The judge determined that appointing this trio violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, which mandates Senate confirmation for such positions.

Brann characterized the administration’s actions as representing an “enormous assertion of Presidential power.”

“It is plain that President Trump and his top aides have chafed at the limits on their power set forth by law and the Constitution. To avoid these roadblocks, this administration frequently purports to have discovered enormous grants of executive power hidden in the vagaries and silences of the code,” Brann stated in his opinion.

Habba, who continues working at the Justice Department as a senior adviser, dismissed the court’s decision as “ridiculous.”

“Judges may continue to try and stop President Trump from carrying out what the American people voted for, but we will not be deterred,” she posted on social media. “The unconstitutionality of this complete overreach into the Executive Branch, time and time again, will not succeed.”

Federal law typically mandates Senate confirmation for U.S. attorneys and permits individuals to serve without such approval only for restricted timeframes.

However, under Trump’s administration, the Justice Department has attempted to keep unconfirmed prosecutors in place much longer through creative staffing arrangements that courts have subsequently deemed improper.

In his ruling, Brann noted there are “at least three undisputedly legal methods” available to the Trump administration for filling the New Jersey position and ending the dispute.

“With all these options remaining, why does the fate of thousands of criminal prosecutions in this District potentially rest on the legitimacy of an unprecedented and byzantine leadership structure?” he questioned. “The Government tells us: the President doesn’t like that he cannot simply appoint whomever he wants.”

Using an occasionally sharp and critical tone, the judge accused the Trump administration of caring “far more about who is running” New Jersey’s federal prosecutor office than “whether it is running at all.”

“I am not fooled by the Government’s superficial arguments,” he wrote elsewhere in the decision.

Similar court rulings have found that individuals placed as chief federal prosecutors in Nevada, Los Angeles and northern New York were all serving illegally.

Lindsey Halligan, who had pursued charges against two Trump opponents, stepped down from her role as acting U.S. attorney in Virginia following a November judicial determination that her appointment was unlawful. The court also ordered the dismissal of indictments she had filed against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.

In certain situations, judges have used their legal authority to name U.S. attorneys to run prosecutor offices until the president’s nominees receive Senate confirmation. The Justice Department has responded by immediately dismissing these court-appointed officials.