It’s been a bad week for President Donald Trump’s attempts to transform the Justice Department into his personal retribution squad. Monday saw a federal appeals panel confirm that Alina Habba’s controversial appointment as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey wasn’t kosher. Their ruling came on the heels of a federal judge’s determination that Lindsay Halligan was unlawfully appointed to serve as the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Both Habba and Halligan came to their roles after previously acting as personal attorneys to President Trump. That they were tapped at all showcases how weak the backbench of lawyers willing to defend the MAGA agenda in court really is. And with their dismissals, it’s safe to say that Trump is running low on lawyers to fill in the massive gaps needed to skillfully defend his most controversial policies.
It’s safe to say that Trump is running low on lawyers to fill in the massive gaps needed to skillfully defend his most controversial policies.
Between the Russia investigation, his two impeachment trials, the failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election, four criminal indictments and several major civil cases against himself and his companies, Trump has accrued a massive roster of personal lawyers over the past decade. While their success rate in court has varied, along with their job satisfaction with their client, the sheer number has provided a fertile ground for presidential appointments this term.
At the top of the heap are Attorney General Pamela Bondi and her top deputy, Todd Blanche. Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, was on Trump’s first impeachment team before becoming his second pick to lead the Justice Department. Blanche led the charge in the federal criminal cases against Trump, successfully delaying them until after last year’s election, as well as in the New York trial that resulted in his client’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. (He did so alongside Emil Bove, who briefly served as Blanche’s right-hand man and enforcer at the DOJ before being confirmed as a federal appellate judge in July.)
Further down the organization chart sits Harmeet Dhillon, serving as the head of the department’s Civil Rights Division. She served as a legal advisor to Trump’s 2020 campaign, and her firm fought to keep Trump on the ballot in Colorado last year amid arguments that he’d violated the 14th Amendment’s Insurrection Clause. Rounding out that group is Solicitor General John Sauer, who’s now arguing before the same Supreme Court justices he convinced to let Trump remain on the ballot in that same case. (The New York Times recently reported that Sauer’s office at least has been “unusually functional” amid the rest of the department’s struggles.)
While loyalists comfortably occupy those top spots, filling out the rest of the Justice Department’s ranks has proved much more difficult. Bondi, Bove and Blanche have overseen the mass firing and forced transfer of many career attorneys who had worked on the federal cases against Trump or on issues that go against the MAGA ethos. A further torrent of resignations has added to the gutting many of the DOJ’s offices have undergone.
Filling in the gaps at Main Justice from the thousands of departures with qualified MAGA-friendly lawyers has been a challenge. The Washington Post reported last month that a newly politicized hiring process has meant “attorneys in divisions that have seen significant departures are stretched thin, unable to keep up with incoming cases or complaints.” Adding to the troubles, the Trump administration pulled a record number of nominations, leaving a smaller stable of Senate-confirmed figures to appoint to acting roles.
The scramble to find lawyers who are both sufficiently loyal and able to make ridiculously political arguments hold up in court is failing.
Look no further than Habba’s initial appointment to see what a struggle the Justice Department has had in finding qualified prosecutors. She mostly acted as a spokesperson during Trump’s trials rather than presenting cases, hammering home her client’s talking points. Habba was unable to win Senate confirmation as U.S. attorney, and was instead moved back into the spot despite her interim appointment lapsing.
Meanwhile, Halligan was a pinch hitter drafted after the initial choice to lead the Eastern District of Virginia’s office was unwilling to go after Trump’s enemies without clear evidence of a crime. She’d never served as a prosecutor before but still rushed to court to file charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both of those cases were tossed out by the same judge who ruled against Halligan’s appointment — but James’ case at least could be brought back by a properly appointed U.S. attorney.
As has become all too common a caveat, there’s always the chance that the Supreme Court completely reverses these recent decisions on appeal, somehow finding Habba and Halligan’s appointments lawful. And there are still plenty of other former Trump attorneys who are waiting in the wings. But the fact that some who might be more experienced than Halligan and Habba have yet to be tapped is telling.
As it stands, the scramble to find lawyers who are both sufficiently loyal and able to make ridiculously political arguments hold up in court is failing. Seeing Habba’s and Halligan’s doomed efforts to bend the law to Trump’s will has been a rare beacon of hope during an overall disconcerting year. With their removal, the short-list of Trumpist attorneys to carry on their legacy grows blessedly shorter.
