An angry federal judge ordered the trio of attorneys running the US Attorney’s Office in New Jersey to testify before him about their leadership structure which has been ruled illegal, saying the prosecutors “have lost the confidence and the trust” of the courts, lawyers and the public.
US District Judge
The office has been in turmoil since a different judge
On Monday, Quraishi admonished Assistant US Attorney Daniel Rosenblum, who appeared for the scheduled sentencing of Francisco Villafane.
“You have lost the confidence and the trust of this court,” Quraishi said, according to a transcript of the hearing. “You have lost the confidence and the trust of the New Jersey legal community, and you are losing the trust and confidence of the public.”
Last week, US District Judge
Bondi has said Habba is now serving as a senior advisor for US attorneys in the Justice Department.
Questioning Authority
In the past year, several defendants have challenged whether prosecutors can proceed against them based on questions about the legal authority of Habba and the triumvirate. Judges have also pushed back against the Justice Department, voting last year that Habba’s deputy should succeed her after her interim appointment expired. Bondi immediately fired the deputy.
Brann put his ruling about the triumvirate on hold to allow for a possible appeal. But the next day, Quraishi posed written questions to prosecutors about who is running the office, directing them to answer at the sentencing or ask to postpone the hearing. In response, Rosenblum didn’t seek a postponement, saying he would answer questions at the hearing.
At the hearing, Quraishi assailed the government’s investigation as “sloppy,” saying they entered a plea deal with Villafane without fully examining evidence that included images of babies, prepubescent children and bestiality, according to the transcript.
“Who screwed it up?” Quraishi asked. “Your office, the FBI, or both?”
“It is probably a combination of errors,” Rosenblum said.
The judge asked Rosenblum whether he had personal knowledge of the roles of the three lawyers running the office — Philip Lamparello, Jordan Fox and Ari Fontecchio. Rosenblum said he didn’t have personal interactions with them.
“What role does Alina Habba have currently in operating your office?” Quraishi said.
“None that I’m aware of,” Rosenblum said.
“So she could be operating the office,” the judge said.
At that point, Mark Coyne, a supervisory assistant US attorney attending the hearing, said: “She is not.”
‘Blindside the Court’
But the judge said Coyne had not made a formal court appearance, adding: “You don’t get to blindside the court and do whatever it is you guys want to do. So if you continue to speak, you can leave.”
When Coyne continued to talk, the judge ordered court security officers to remove him if he didn’t leave, according to the transcript. Coyne left.
The judge then asked Rosenblum: “You have no personal knowledge whatsoever as to whether Ms. Habba is still influencing the operations of your office even after two courts said she was operating unlawfully?”
Rosenblum said he had no personal knowledge of that. Quraishi directed Rosenblum to read the last line of Brann’s opinion. He read: “If the government chooses to leave the triumvirate in place, it does so at its own risk.” The judge said: “Here is your risk. This is your risk.”
The judge said he didn’t believe what Rosenblum had said in court.
“That is what has happened to the credibility of your office,” he said, according to the transcript. “Generations of Assistant US Attorneys had built the goodwill of that office for your generation to destroy it within a year. So I don’t believe who is running the office.”
The judge then ordered Fox, Lamparello and Fontecchio to testify before him.
“They will not be sitting in this courtroom listening to each other testify, and they’re going to answer my questions about who is running this office and how,” the judge said. If he’s not satisfied with their answers, Quraishi said, he may require testimony by Habba and Deputy Attorney General
Later in the day, the judge said the triumvirate should testify on April 1. On Tuesday, Coyne submitted a letter seeking a 30-day adjournment, saying that Judge Brann may issue another opinion and noting “other events before then hopefully will remove any doubt” about the authority of assistant US attorneys. Quraishi then reset the hearing for May 4.
Lamparello, Fox and Fontecchio didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Activist judges continue to work overtime to fight President Trump’s agenda at all costs — we will not be deterred,” Habba said.
On Feb. 13, Fox appeared to extend an olive branch to US District Judge
The case is US v. Villafane, 25-cr-232, US District Court, District of New Jersey (Trenton).
(Updates hearing date. An earlier version corrected the spelling of the prosecutor’s name in fourth paragraph.)
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Peter Blumberg, Steve Stroth
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