By JAKE OFFENHARTZ

President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Alina Habba, said Monday she is resigning as the top federal prosecutor for New Jersey, giving up her fight to stay in the job after an appeals court said she had been serving in the post unlawfully.

Related Articles

ICEBlock app maker sues Trump administration for free speech violations

Judge orders the release of an immigrant with ties to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt

12 FBI agents fired for kneeling during racial justice protest sue to get their jobs back

Bloomberg expands his support of mayors globally to help save democracy. And improve trash pickup

The Supreme Court seems likely to back Trump’s power to fire independent agency board members

In a statement posted on social media, Habba assailed the court’s ruling as political, but said she was resigning “to protect the stability and integrity” of her office.

“But do not mistake compliance for surrender,” she said, adding that the administration would continue its appeal. “This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.”

Habba said she would remain with the Justice Department as a senior advisor to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Habba, 41, was appointed in March to serve a temporary term as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a powerful post charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law.

Once a partner in a small New Jersey law firm, Habba was among Trump’s most visible legal defenders during the four years he was out of power, representing him in court and frequently appearing on cable TV news as his “legal spokesperson.”

But she had limited federal court experience, and New Jersey’s two Democratic senators indicated they would block her confirmation in the U.S. Senate.

When her term expired in July, a panel of federal judges appointed one of her subordinates to the role instead. But Bondi promptly fired the replacement, blaming Habba’s removal on “politically minded judges.”

A lower-court judge’s finding that Habba was unlawfully serving in the position soon triggered a monthslong legal standoff, prompting confusion and delays within New Jersey’s federal court system.

Then, earlier this month, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia disqualified her from serving in the role, writing in their opinion that “the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deserve some clarity and stability.”

Habba is one of several Trump administration prosecutors whose appointments have faced challenges.

FILE – President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing-in for Alina Habba as interim US Attorney General for New Jersey, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, March 28, 2025. (Pool via AP, file)

The Justice Department had vowed to appeal a judge’s ruling dismissing the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on the grounds that the prosecutor who filed the charges, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

It’s unclear whether the administration’s decision to abandon the fight to keep Habba in office may impact other U.S. attorneys whose appointments have been challenged by defense lawyers.

In a statement posted on X on Monday, Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accused judges of engaging in an “unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility” against Halligan for questioning why she was still being identified as U.S. attorney on court documents.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Moments after Luigi Mangione was put in handcuffs at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, a police officer searching his backpack found a loaded gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear.

The discovery, recounted in court Monday as Mangione fights to exclude evidence from his New York murder case, convinced police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, that he was the man wanted for killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan five days earlier.

“It’s him, dude. It’s him, 100%,” an officer was heard saying on body-worn camera video from Mangione’s Dec. 9, 2024 arrest, punctuating the remark with expletives as the officer combing the bag, Christy Wasser, held up the magazine.

Wasser, a 19-year Altoona police veteran, testified on the fourth day of a pretrial hearing as Mangione seeks to bar prosecutors from using the magazine and other evidence against him, including a 9 mm handgun and a notebook that were found during a subsequent search of the bag.

Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. He appeared in good health on Monday, intently watching the video and occasionally jotting notes. The hearing, which began Dec. 1 and was postponed Friday because of his apparent illness, applies only to the state case. His lawyers are making a similar push to exclude the evidence from his federal case, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Prosecutors have said the handgun found in the backpack matches the firearm used in the killing and that writings in the notebook showed Mangione’s disdain for health insurers and ideas about killing a CEO at an investor conference.

Mangione’s lawyers contend the items should be excluded because police didn’t have a search warrant for the backpack. Prosecutors contend the search was legal and that officers eventually obtained a warrant.

Related Articles

Honduran man is held without bond in North Carolina train stabbing that drew comments from Trump

12 FBI agents fired for kneeling during racial justice protest sue to get their jobs back

Court clerk who helped with Alex Murdaugh’s trial pleads guilty to showing sealed exhibits

Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier to be arraigned over sports betting scheme

Wall Street edges back from its record heights

Wasser, testifying in full uniform, said she was following Altoona police protocols that require promptly searching a suspect’s property at the time of an arrest, in part to check for potentially dangerous items. She was heard on body-worn camera footage played in court that she wanted to check the bag for bombs before removing it from the McDonald’s.

Wasser told another officer she didn’t want to repeat an incident in which another Altoona officer had inadvertently brought a bomb to the police station.

Thompson, 50, was killed as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for his company’s investor conference on Dec. 4, 2024. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan, after police there received a 911 call about a McDonald’s customer who appeared to resemble the suspect.

Wasser said that prior to responding to the McDonald’s she had seen some coverage of Thompson’s killing on Fox News, including the surveillance video of the shooting and images of the suspected shooter.

Wasser began searching his bag as officers took him into custody on initial charges of forgery and false identification, after he acknowledged giving them a bogus driving license, police said. The same fake name was used by the alleged gunman used at a Manhattan hostel days before the shooting.

By then, a handcuffed Mangione had been informed of his right to remain silent — and invoked it — when asked if there was anything in the bag that officers should be concerned about.

According to body-worn camera video, the first few items Wasser found were innocuous: a hoagie, a loaf of bread and a smaller bag containing a passport, cellphone and computer chip.

Then she pulled out the underwear, unwrapping the gray pair to reveal the magazine.

Satisfied there was no bomb, she suspended her search and placed some of the items back in the bag. She resumed her search at the police station, almost immediately finding the gun and silencer. Later, while cataloging everything in the bag in what’s known as an inventory search, she found the notebook.

A Blair County, Pennsylvania, prosecutor testified that a judge later signed off on a search warrant for the bag, a few hours after the searches were completed. The warrant, she said, provided a legal mechanism for Altoona police to turn the evidence over to New York City detectives investigating Thompson’s killing.

As he has through the case, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann described Thompson’s killing as an “execution” and referred to his notebook as a “manifesto” — terms that Mangione’s lawyers said were prejudicial and inappropriate.

Judge Gregory Carro said the wording had “no bearing” on him, but warned Seidemann that he’s “certainly not going to do that at trial” when jurors are present.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The maker of an iPhone app that flagged sightings of U.S. immigration agents sued the Trump administration for free speech violations on Monday, alleging that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi used her “state power” to force Apple to remove the app.

Apple in October removed ICEBlock and other apps from its app store after Bondi said they put Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at risk by enabling people to track ICE activity in their neighborhoods.

The lawsuit from ICEBlock app maker Joshua Aaron argued that the government’s actions violated the First Amendment.

The lawsuit also asks a federal judge to protect the Texas-based software developer from prosecution, alleging “unlawful threats made by Attorney General Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, ICE Acting Director Todd M. Lyons, and White House Border Czar Tom Homan to criminally investigate and prosecute Aaron for his role in developing ICEBlock.”

The Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

ICEBlock was the most widely used of the ICE-tracking apps in Apple’s app store until Bondi said in October that her office reached out to Apple “demanding that they remove ICEBlock” and claiming that it “is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.”

Apple soon complied, sending an email to Aaron that said it would block further downloads of the app because new information “provided to Apple by law enforcement” showed the app broke the app store rules.

According to the email, which Aaron shared with The Associated Press in October, Apple said the app violated the company’s policies “because its purpose is to provide location information about law enforcement officers that can be used to harm such officers individually or as a group.”

Related Articles

Judge orders the release of an immigrant with ties to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt

Honduran man is held without bond in North Carolina train stabbing that drew comments from Trump

The European Union moves ahead with toughening its migration system

Letters: Both Tim Walz and Donald Trump do the Minnesota Somali community a grave disservice

Federal judge appears skeptical of Trump’s ongoing command of California National Guard troops

By HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A Brazilian woman with family ties to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will be released from ICE custody while she fights potential deportation, an immigration judge ruled Monday.

Bruna Ferreira, 33, a longtime Massachusetts resident, was previously engaged to Leavitt’s brother, Michael. She was driving to pick up their 11-year-old son in New Hampshire when she was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere, Massachusetts, on Nov. 12.

Ferreira later was moved to a detention facility in Louisiana, where an immigration judge ordered that she be released on $1,500 bond, her attorney Todd Pomerleau said.

“We argued that she wasn’t a danger or a flight risk,” he said in a text message. “The government stipulated to our argument and never once argued that she was criminal illegal alien and waived appeal.”

The Department of Homeland Security previously called Ferreira a “criminal illegal alien” and said she had been arrested for battery, an allegation her attorney denied. Neither the department nor the White House press secretary responded to requests for comment Monday.

Pomerleau said his client came to the U.S. as a toddler and later enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Obama-era policy that shields immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. He said she was in the process of applying for a green card.

Karoline Leavitt grew up in New Hampshire, and made an unsuccessful run for Congress from the state in 2022 before becoming Trump’s spokesperson for his 2024 campaign and later joining him at the White House.

Related Articles

ICEBlock app maker sues Trump administration for free speech violations

Honduran man is held without bond in North Carolina train stabbing that drew comments from Trump

The European Union moves ahead with toughening its migration system

Letters: Both Tim Walz and Donald Trump do the Minnesota Somali community a grave disservice

Federal judge appears skeptical of Trump’s ongoing command of California National Guard troops