Barbara McQuade, Columnist

Alina Habba Is Too Partisan and Inept to Be a US Attorney

Trump’s nominee for the role in New Jersey needs a reminder that politics shouldn’t come before justice.

July 16, 2025 at 11:00 AM UTC

Barbara McQuade is a professor at the University of Michigan Law school, a former US attorney and author of "Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America."

Not qualified for the job.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America

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“We could turn New Jersey red.”

Those were the words of Alina Habba just days after being installed as the interim US attorney in New Jersey. President Donald Trump has now nominated Habba to the permanent position. If her missteps had ended with those words, it would still have constituted a gross violation of Justice Department norms. However, there are many other ways in which Habba has shown herself to be a partisan warrior unfit to serve as the state’s top federal prosecutor.