Kim on Habba U.S. Attorney appointment: ‘An unacceptable partisan choice’

President Donald Trump’s choice of Alina Habba, his own former defense attorney and a controversial figure in the president’s legal orbit, to be interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey is drawing blowback from many New Jersey Democrats – including from U.S. Senator Andy Kim, who could have a say on her nomination if she’s nominated for a full term.

“The announcement of Alina Habba to be interim US Attorney in New Jersey is an unacceptable partisan choice that will leave New Jersey ill-prepared to take on dangerous challenges like gun violence and drug trafficking,” Kim said in a statement this morning. “We must do better to keep our communities safe.”

Kim’s statement contrasts with his more measured reactions to Trump’s prior two choices for the U.S. Attorney slot: Doug Steinhardt, a state senator who eventually withdrew his name from consideration, and John Giordano, a Philadelphia attorney who served as interim U.S. Attorney for around three weeks before departing yesterday to make way for Habba. Kim, still early in his first Senate term and dealing with his first local judicial nominations, declined to directly criticize either pick while the process was ongoing.

But Habba, who has been counselor to the president since Trump’s term began, is evidently problematic enough to make an exception. A native of Summit, Habba rose to prominence as a legal attack dog for Trump as the president fended off lawsuits and criminal charges filed against him during his presidential interregnum – in many cases drawing rebukes from the judges overseeing her cases. Habba has also drawn headlines outside of the courtroom, including a recent incident in which she called herself a “big fan” of alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate. 

And after her nomination as interim U.S. Attorney was announced yesterday, Habba – who has no prior prosecutorial experience – made it clear that her new role wouldn’t limit her political rhetoric.

“There is corruption, there is injustice, and there is a heavy amount of crime right in Cory Booker’s backyard and right under Governor Murphy, and that will stop,” Habba told reporters.

Booker himself, meanwhile, has yet to comment on Habba’s nomination, but several Democrats in the state’s House delegation have; Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) said Trump only picked Habba because he’s “looking for lackeys” to break the law, and Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) referenced her own time in the U.S. Attorney’s Office to slam Habba.

“I was a federal prosecutor in the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office and I can think of few people who are less fit to serve as the U.S. Attorney than Alina Habba,” Sherrill said. “She’s not only unqualified, but has shown time and time again that her allegiance is to Donald Trump – not the rule of law or the Constitution.”

What’s not clear yet, though, is whether the Senate will end up getting to weigh in on Habba. Trump picked her to be interim U.S. Attorney, a post that she can hold for 120 days (or longer if the state’s District Court judges vote to keep her there), but he didn’t say whether she’s also his pick to hold the role long-term. If he does, Habba would have to go through a Senate confirmation process, one which Kim and Booker could substantially waylay (as Booker and then-Senator Bob Menendez did to Craig Carpenito during Trump’s first term).