New Jersey got a new interim U.S. Attorney this week: Alina Habba, a former defense lawyer for President Donald Trump and a prominent spokesperson for the president. Habba’s politicized style will undoubtedly be a big change for the normally staid office, to the approval of some conservatives and the deep concern of most Democrats.
But members of Congress had plenty of other things to focus on this week, from leaked war plans to the end of a ceasefire in Gaza to a series of sinkholes in Morris County. Here’s some of what New Jersey’s members of Congress did in Washington this past week.
The classic New Jersey-to-Namibia pipeline
For years, Alina Habba has railed against the alleged politicization and weaponization of the justice system against Donald Trump, the man she represented in a number of highly publicized trials. Now, Habba has become a key player in that very justice system.
On Monday, Trump announced that he was naming Habba, a Summit native and Bernardsville resident, as the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, making her the state’s new top federal law enforcement officer. Habba was sworn in yesterday, replacing John Giordano, himself an interim pick who had only taken office a few weeks ago. (Giordano has instead been named as ambassador to Namibia, a very similar post.)
“From being outside the courtroom steps defending him and defending our great nation, I saw the most resilience I’ve ever seen in my life,” Habba said of Trump at her swearing-in ceremony. “This man kept fighting for America, and I’m just so honored that now I get to fight for the state of New Jersey. I will do a good job, sir. I will clean it up, and we’re going to Make New Jersey Great Again.”
Habba was known during Trump’s legal battles court as a combative and highly political figure, and it has thus far seemed like her new role won’t tone that down. She attacked both Senator Cory Booker and Gov. Phil Murphy by name the day she was named to the job, and she said on a pro-Trump news channel that she hopes she can “help [the] cause” of flipping New Jersey to Republicans.
Booker and Murphy, for their parts, have declined to publicly criticize Habba, who may or may not be Trump’s pick for a full term as U.S. Attorney (in addition to her current interim posting). Other Democrats, though, have been much more willing to sharply criticize Habba as an overtly political, unacceptable choice.
“Trump is elevating his personal attorney to be the top prosecutor in our state only because he’s looking for lackeys who will happily do whatever he wants including breaking the law for him,” Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) said.
Mixed Signals
Dominating conversation in Congress this week was a revelation from Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic, that top officials in the Trump administration had mistakenly added him to a Signal group chat and proceeded to message him highly sensitive information about a military operation in Yemen.
The White House’s response has been scattered; some officials have claimed the information wasn’t classified after all (despite containing detailed information about an upcoming military strike), while others denied the story entirely or tried to shift the blame onto Goldberg. Democrats have used the scandal to argue that the Trump administration is dangerously incompetent, saying that the officials responsible – particularly Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was the one who sent the bulk of the sensitive information to the chat – need to resign.
“If it didn’t mean that we would take out the entire national security apparatus of the United States of America, I would probably want every single one of these people fired,” Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), a U.S. Navy veteran, said on the Brian Lehrer Show. “I don’t even know why anybody would call this an honest mistake – I don’t care if it was honest or not honest. It is a dereliction of duty.”
Congressional Democrats (and Republicans, though their response has been more muted) also had the opportunity to directly question and harangue several of the officials involved when they came before the Senate and House Intelligence Committees for a pair of public hearings this week. New Jersey’s lone member on those committees, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly), wasn’t there to ask questions at the hearing, but he did say in a statement that Hegseth needed to step down.
“Based on all of the facts that have become public, it’s clear that the Secretary of Defense lied about his disclosure of classified information, including advance warning and plans of U.S. strikes on the Houthis,” Gottheimer said. “Secretary Hegseth’s reckless actions increased the risks to brave men and women and the mission they faced. He should resign and be replaced by someone who can properly protect sensitive information.”
‘Genocide’
Since the outbreak of war in Gaza in 2023, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) has been more willing than nearly any other New Jersey politician to criticize Israel and draw attention to suffering in Gaza. At a press conference outside the Capitol this week, Watson Coleman endeavored to make sure that, with a prior ceasefire agreement over and new negotiations stalled, the issue doesn’t fade into the background.
“We refuse to let the world turn its eyes away from helping Gaza,” Watson Coleman said. “The suffering, the destruction, the overwhelming loss – it has not stopped. It has not lessened. But for too many, it has faded from view. That is why so many of us are here today – to demand that our country do something about it.”
The congresswoman was joined by a number of her progressive colleagues in the House, as well as by Gaza medical volunteer Dr. Adam Hamawy, former Franklin Township school board member Sami Shaban (himself a Palestinian American who has lost family members in Gaza), and CAIR-NJ director Selaedin Maksut. And Watson Coleman’s rhetoric against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israeli war effort in general, went further than it ever has before.
“The United States has an obligation to identify a red line and hold our allies accountable when they behave in a way that threatens every person’s right to peace and self-determination,” she said. “We cannot claim to support a ceasefire while Prime Minister Netanyahu the fire that has engulfed Gaza. There must be an arms embargo. There must be an arms embargo.”
“If we truly believe in human rights and the dignity of all people, we must stop arming the very forces that are carrying out these atrocities,” she continued. “What is happening in Gaza is ethnic cleansing. It is genocide. And history will not [only] judge those who carried it out, but those who enabled it.”
Sinkhole or swimhole
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy bought a home in Mendham Township in 2021, and now he’s learning about one of the greatest perils that his neighbors in Morris County face: sinkholes.
A series of sinkholes on I-80 in Wharton and Rockaway have caused havoc in recent weeks, prompting politicians both state and federal to pay visits and offer solutions. Late last week, Duffy joined Gov. Murphy and Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) to tour one such sinkhole and see what can be done.
“This [I-80] is a massive artery that can’t be shut down, and so everyone is working together to figure out what solution we need to make sure we can open up this roadway again,” Duffy said.
Rep. Gottheimer, meanwhile, paid his own visit to the sinkhole this week, and urged a variety of agencies – the U.S. Department of Transportation, the New Jersey Department of Transportation, and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority – to expedite funding and assistance to repair the sinkholes and prevent future ones from occurring.
“The state must work quickly to repair the damage and restore normal traffic flow, and the federal government must cut through red tape to ensure no delays to emergency funding,” Gottheimer said. “I will continue working with our local, state, and federal partners to ensure Jersey gets the support we need and that Route 80 is reopened without delay.”
Sticking it to the McMahon
While Congress was out of town last week, Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon began their effort to dismantle the Department of Education, a longtime goal in conservative circles. The department was created by an act of Congress and thus can in theory only be abolished by Congress, but an executive order from Trump nevertheless directs McMahon to begin finding ways to wind down the department.
New Jersey’s House Democrats aren’t having it. In a letter led by Rep. Pallone, all nine of the state’s Democratic representatives excoriated the attempt to shutter the department, saying that such a move is illegal and would bring great harm to New Jersey schoolchildren and families.
“If the Department of Education is dismantled and federal funds are unlawfully withheld, millions of students and their families in New Jersey will suffer,” states the letter, which was addressed to McMahon. “Local school districts will face massive budget shortfalls leading to teacher layoffs, increased classroom sizes, and higher property taxes. Students, families, and local taxpayers will bear the burden of these irresponsible and unlawful actions.”
Donald-on-Donald warfare
During his time in Congress, Rep. Donald M. Payne Sr. (D-Newark) became known as a foreign policy-focused legislator, serving at one point as the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa. When he died, a new fellowship, the Donald M. Payne International Development Fellowship, was created in his honor to help those from underrepresented backgrounds achieve careers in foreign service.
But amid Donald Trump’s all-out attack on foreign aid programs, that fellowship is officially kaput; earlier this week, its website declared that the fellowship had been shut down, and now that website doesn’t even work. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark), who now holds the congressional seat Payne once held, is not happy with that decision.
“The recent decision by your department to terminate the Payne Fellowship undermines our nation’s commitment to fostering a Foreign Service that reflects professional achievement and dedication to our country,” McIver wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Additionally, the termination negatively impacts the current cohort of 2023 and 2024 fellows, who met the rigorous and competitive application requirements and will have a lasting impact on the ability to strengthen our nation’s standing across the globe.”
Cobalt blues
Speaking of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) – the current chairman of the panel – held a hearing this week entitled “Metals, Minerals, and Mining: How the CCP Fuels Conflict and Exploitation in Africa.”
The topic is one that has long energized Smith, whose chief focus in Congress is global human rights; the subcommittee meeting on Tuesday was the latest in a longer series of hearings Smith has hosted to examine China’s role in African mining operations, especially with regards to cobalt, a key ingredient in the construction of electronic devices and electric vehicles.
“The greatest beneficiaries of this system – China’s state-owned mining companies – remain silent, refusing to confront an undeniable reality: from dirt to battery, from cobalt to cars, the entire supply chain is built on violence, exploitation, and corruption,” Smith said in his opening remarks. “This must change – and the time for change is now.”
Other Garden State plots
• Senator Kim hosted a press conference this week to highlight the plight of Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton graduate student who was kidnapped by an Islamic terrorist group in Iraq two years ago and has yet to be released.
“The Iraqi government can and should be doing more right now to be able to get Elizabeth freed,” Kim said while standing alongside Tsurkov’s sister, Emma. “That is something that our government and our administration needs to hold up as an important priority in our bilateral engagements with the government of Iraq, that they have to show that they are being responsive to the needs of our country.”
• Rep. Gottheimer issued a renewed call this week for the protection of women’s rights in the face of Republican attacks on reproductive health care and funding for domestic violence prevention.
“We are witnessing in real time a full-scale assault by far-right extremists on women’s safety, rights, and health care,” Gottheimer said. “The President said he would ‘protect women whether they like it or not,’ yet he is refusing to enforce laws that protect them and handing out get-out-of-jail-free cards to those who threaten them. It’s completely disgusting. Here in Jersey, we will stand up and stand together against these far-right extremist attacks that are putting women’s lives at risk.”
• Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) and a bipartisan trio of fellow representatives introduced a new bill this week, the Prescription Drug Transparency and Affordability Act, that would require pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to disclose financial transactions related to their work and penalizes them for providing inaccurate information, which Menendez argues would lead to lower drug costs.
“Americans have rightly demanded lower costs for prescription drugs, and our pricing transparency bill aims to do just that,” Menendez said. “Greater access to prescription drug pricing information will enable patients and employers to make better informed decisions – a commonsense solution that benefits all Americans.”