By David Thomas
March 9 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration overstepped its authority by installing three prosecutors to lead New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney’s office without winning U.S. Senate confirmation, a federal judge ruled on Monday, warning that thousands of federal criminal cases could be dismissed as a result.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann in his ruling disqualified the trio of attorneys — Philip Lamparello, Jordan Fox and Ari Fontecchio — from overseeing two ongoing criminal cases.
If the Justice Department continued to unilaterally delegate the authority of New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney to unconfirmed lawyers, Brann said, he could dismiss the criminal cases they are overseeing “at any stage.”
“Why does the fate of thousands of criminal prosecutions in this district potentially rest on the legitimacy of an unprecedented and Byzantine leadership structure?” Brann wrote in his 130-page opinion. “The government tells us: the president doesn’t like that he cannot simply appoint whomever he wants.”
Lawyers for the defendants who challenged the leadership appointments, Raheel Naviwala and Daniel Torres, praised the decision. A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lamparello, Fox and Fontecchio were appointed after a federal appeals court disqualified Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer to Trump, from serving as New Jersey’s top prosecutor.
Habba said in December she would take on a new role as senior adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi, focusing on U.S. Attorneys around the country. She criticized Brann’s ruling in a Monday post on X.
“Judges may continue to try and stop President Trump from carrying out what the American people voted for, but we will not be deterred,” Habba said.
The Justice Department has sought to install close Trump allies in key U.S. Attorneys’ offices without going through the traditional U.S. Senate confirmation process. Brann in his ruling said this approach was “an enormous assertion of presidential power.”
(Reporting by David ThomasEditing by Bill Berkrot)
