Judge appoints new US attorney for New Jersey after Habba, other officials were disqualified

A veteran federal prosecutor was appointed Monday as U.S. attorney for New Jersey, ending a dispute between the judiciary and President Donald Trump over control of the office that included the disqualifications of the administration’s previous picks for the position.

A U.S. District Court judge issued a one-sentence order naming Robert Frazer as the top federal prosecutor in the state — the result of an agreement between federal judges and the U.S. Department of Justice.

“The Department of Justice thanks the district court for working with the Department to appoint Robert Frazer to serve as US Attorney so that once again criminal prosecutions can resume without needless challenge or delay on behalf of the people of New Jersey,” the department said in a statement.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann disqualified three Justice Department officials who were sharing authority over the office, saying they were appointed in an illegal power grab by the Trump administration. They replaced Trump’s first choice for U.S. attorney, his former personal attorney Alina Habba, whom Brann barred from the job last year because she had stayed too long without Senate confirmation.

The three officials — Philip Lamparello, Jordan Fox and Ari Fontecchio — had been appointed to replace Habba indefinitely, in an unusual move by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

In a court hearing last week, another federal judge in New Jersey ordered the three to answer his questions under oath and threw another government official out of the proceeding in frustration over the Justice Department’s chaotic oversight of federal prosecutions in the state.

Habba, who is now a senior adviser at the Justice Department, congratulated Frazer in a social media post Monday, saying “New Jersey deserves a great chief federal law enforcement official who is in line with President Trump’s agenda of making this country safe and NJ great!”

Frazer, who had been serving as senior trial counsel in the New Jersey U.S. attorney’s office, did not immediately return an email message Monday.

The judiciary and Trump’s administration have been odds over the process for selecting U.S. attorneys, who ordinarily must undergo Senate confirmation to stay in their positions.

Judges have ruled, in separate cases, that people installed as the top federal prosecutors for Nevada, Los Angeles and northern New York were all serving unlawfully.

Lindsey Halligan, who pursued indictments against a pair of Trump’s adversaries, left her position as acting U.S. attorney in Virginia after a judge concluded in November that her appointment was unlawful. The judge also ruled that indictments she brought against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey must be dismissed.

In some instances, judges have exercised their power under the law to appoint U.S. attorneys to oversee prosecutor offices until one of the president’s picks is confirmed by the Senate. The Justice Department has responded by immediately firing those judicial appointees.

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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.