Trump attorney Alina Habba leaves New York Supreme Court on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023 in New York. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman)
Rather than calling New Jersey federal judges "rogue" and "activists" online for using their authority to fill vacant top prosecutors' offices, the DOJ turned down the temperature and worked with a court, resulting in an appointment that even Alina Habba effusively praised.
In a boilerplate appointment order on Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb, a George W. Bush appointee, cited the vacancies statute, 28 U.S. Code § 546(d), to name longtime assistant U.S. attorney Robert Frazer as the new U.S. attorney. It was the same authority that Bumb invoked in July 2025 when she declined to extend Habba's interim appointment and named a replacement that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi immediately fired.
At the time, Bondi claimed that "politically minded" and "rogue" judges had tried to "threaten the President's core Article II powers." In response, the AG had Habba resign as the interim so she could be immediately reinstalled as the acting U.S. attorney. This move, and several others like it, have been smacked down by federal judges across the country, with at times severe consequences for the administration's — and President Donald Trump's — investigative priorities.
The Trump administration insisted in the face of back-to-back losses that the president's former personal attorney was lawfully appointed as acting U.S. attorney, but Habba stepped aside in December. Since then, judges in the Garden State have hammered the U.S. Attorney's Office and DOJ higher-ups for serial violations of court orders and the creation of the legally unconvincing "triumvirate" to replace Habba.
Worse yet, the judge who disqualified Habba from prosecutions in the first place recently went so far as to warn that indictments would be dismissed if the leadership situation at the top of the U.S. Attorney's Office did not shift from "triumvirate" to functioning, constitutionally and practically.
Chief U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann of the Middle District of Pennsylvania was designated to handle challenges of Habba's authority, and Brann likewise heard challenges of the "triumvirate." In both cases, the result was disqualification. But while slamming the "triumvirate" as an unconstitutional concoction and issuing a searing commentary on the administration's intentions, Brann practically begged the government to "compromise" with the district court on the appointment.
"As long as the President is willing to find compromise, there is no reason that someone cannot always be performing the functions and duties of the office in complete conformity with the law," the judge noted. "Yet through its statements and actions, the Administration has made clear that it cares far more about who is running the USAO-NJ than whether it is running at all."
Habba herself lauded Frazer's appointment.
"Congratulations to my colleague Rob Frazer at the Department of Justice in New Jersey who just became the next United States Attorney. 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! I know Rob well and he will be a great champion of this state and mission of the @TheJusticeDept," Habba posted on X, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche reposting.
This time, there was no outcry about "rogue" judges, and instead a DOJ spokesperson thanked the district court for appointing Frazer so "criminal prosecutions can resume without needless challenge or delay," according to a New York Times report.
The one point Habba emphasized "should be clear" in her post is that it was on the court to work with Bondi and Blanche.
"One thing should be clear – when judges work with @AGPamBondi and @DAGToddBlanche under @POTUS to collaborate on serving what an overwhelming majority of Americans asked for at the ballots and not attack mindlessly for political gain THINGS GET DONE," she wrote.
On that score, it's a two-way street.
Frazer has what Habba did not: actual prosecutorial experience, and in the jurisdiction which he was appointed to lead. CNN reported that Frazer has served as a prosecutor for two decades, handled violent and organized crime cases, and won the respect of at least one of attorney who successfully argued the "triumvirate" structure was unlawful.