Ex-Trump lawyer Alina Habba quits as top federal prosecutor in New Jersey | Trump administration

Donald Trump’s former lawyer Alina Habba says she is resigning as top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, she announced on social media.

Habba’s resignation came after district and appellate court rulings which found she was unlawfully serving in the role, a powerful post charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law.

The Trump administration had been maneuvering to keep Habba in place even though her interim appointment expired and she had not received US Senate confirmation as legally required.

Habba’s statement on Monday said “do not mistake compliance for surrender” and that she would serve as a senior adviser for US attorneys to the Trump administration’s attorney general, Pam Bondi.

“Make no mistake, you can take the girl out of New Jersey, but you cannot take New Jersey out of the girl,” said the statement from Habba, who had been appointed to her US attorney role by Trump nine months earlier.

Bondi said in her own statement that the US justice department would seek further review of the ruling that deemed Habba’s appointment unlawful. Habba will return to the position if the ruling in question is reversed, Bondi said.

Habba served as Trump’s personal attorney through two civil trials last year before his second presidency began in January. She drew controversy after her 120-day interim term expired in July, and New Jersey’s top federal judges appointed Habba’s first assistant Desiree Grace to Habba’s position.

Bondi fired Grace and reappointed Habba, naming her a “special attorney”.

A federal appeals court in Pennsylvania ruled Habba was serving unlawfully. That ruling barred her from prosecuting cases but left in place the indictments she signed.

At the White House on Monday, Trump voiced disappointment that a courtesy system that allows home-state senators to signal their approval of judicial appointees known as “blue slip” had effectively broken down.

“If I put up George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to be US attorney in New Jersey or Virginia where we have Democrat senators they will not approve them,” Trump said.

“This a gentleman’s agreement that has been going on too long. It means you can’t appoint a Republican US attorney and we don’t play the same game with them, but they do. I guess I’ll have to keep appointing people for three months. Then another one and another one. It’s a very sad situation.”