WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s early selections for U.S. attorneys have drawn strong pushback from Democratic senators who have considerable power to block them, setting up another fight over personnel picks from a president who places a premium on loyalty as he staffs his administration.
His choices for the top prosecutors in Nevada, New York and New Jersey are opposed by Democratic senators, and at stake is the Republican president's ability to have the team he wants for positions with enormous sway over which cases and crimes are investigated and what penalties the government seeks.
The power they wield was underscored this past week when the interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Alina Habba, announced she was charging Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., with assault after a skirmish with federal officers outside an immigration detention center in Newark. McIver has denied any wrongdoing and said the charge was "purely political."
In the Senate, which must approve a president's nominees for U.S. attorney, at least two Democrats are prepared to invoke a decades-old custom that affords home-state senators veto power over whether a would-be federal prosecutor can be confirmed.
That battle comes as Ed Martin, Trump's first choice to be the top prosecutor in the nation's capital, withdrew from consideration after both Republicans and Democrats indicated they would not support the conservative activist, who has a modest legal background and expressed support for Jan. 6 rioters. The president replaced Martin with Fox News Channel host Jeanine Pirro, a former county prosecutor and elected judge in New York who has been a longtime Trump defender on television.
“Martin was the extreme example,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I think our antenna are flying high as we look at each one of these nominees.”
Trump's selections for these jobs have received added scrutiny as the president has tried to assert greater control over the Justice Department and pursue a campaign of retribution.
Trump picks pique Democrats' concerns
In Nevada, Trump has installed a right-wing lawyer, Sigal Chattah, as the interim U.S. attorney, drawing opposition from the state's Democratic senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen. Rosen has pledged to use her senatorial prerogative to unilaterally block Chattah if the administration seeks to keep Chattah beyond a 120-day interim period.
In New Jersey, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would not support Habba as the permanent U.S. attorney. She is a former Trump White House counselor and personal attorney.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York has pledged to block Trump’s picks for two key prosecutor's offices in his state. Schumer did not cite concerns about the nominees but rather what he said were the president's intentions to use “the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney offices and law enforcement as weapons to go after his perceived enemies.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “was proud to appoint Alina Habba to serve in this role, and he believes she is doing a great job cleaning up New Jersey and enforcing law and order.”
The White House, in a statement, also criticized Schumer. It did not respond to questions about the Nevada prosecutor.
“Senator Schumer and his anti-law-and-order party are prioritizing politics over critical DOJ appointments, obstructing President Trump’s Make America Safe Again agenda,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said.
In response, Schumer said: “The Justice Department should spend more time prosecuting criminals instead of going after their perceived political enemies."
Democrats consider using their ‘blue slip’ power to block nominees
Opposition from Democratic senators usually would not matter for Trump nominees as long as most Republicans, who control the majority, are united in support. But a long-standing Senate custom, called the blue slip, allows senators to block the nominations of U.S. District Court judges, federal prosecutors and U.S. marshals from the lawmakers' home states.
Republicans could decide to abandon that custom. But the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has repeatedly indicated that he would honor blue slip objections from home-state senators over those prosecutors and judges.
“I think it gives senators a hand in choosing nominees for their state and making sure that the nominees reflect their state,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., a committee member. “I mean, I certainly used the blue slip" when Democrat Joe Biden was president.
But Hawley also emphasized of the blue slip: “I would hope it wouldn’t be abused.”
Democrats are alarmed at what they see as overt politicization by Justice Department prosecutors in the second Trump term. They point to Martin’s interim tenure in Washington, when he demoted several senior officials who handled or oversaw cases involving the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Democrats were also concerned by the resignations of attorneys in the Southern District of New York, which had been handling a corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams before it was dismissed in April.
Schumer in April announced he would withhold blue slips for two New York City-area U.S. attorneys.
In Nevada, Rosen and Cortez Masto have denounced the appointment of Chattah, who describes herself on X as a “#firebrand” and “Proud American Nationalist.” The senators cited among their concerns Chattah’s past comments that the state’s Black attorney general should “should be hanging from a (expletive) crane.”
Chattah also drew backlash last year for a post on X about former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who is Black, calling him an “anti-Semitic ghetto rat.”
In a brief phone call, Chattah told The Associated Press that she thought she would “probably” be nominated to the position permanently.
“We’re playing it by ear,” she said, without elaborating. She did not comment on the senators’ objections.
Booker said he has had conversations with the White House counsel’s office about the U.S. attorney post in his state. He declined to say whether he would exercise his blue slip privileges for Habba if she were nominated, but told the AP, "I do not support her being permanent.”
Habba did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Habba, who became known for her frequent cable news appearances defending Trump in his legal battles and her appearances at his campaign events, had limited court experience before joining his legal team. During Trump’s 2024 defamation trial in New York, she was repeatedly scolded by the judge for misstating the law and for running afoul of legal procedures.
In her interim role, Habba announced last month that she has launched an investigation into New Jersey’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, and attorney general, Matt Platkin, over the state’s directive that local law enforcement should not cooperate with federal agents conducting immigration enforcement.
Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington University law school professor and former Justice Department official, said that in the past, including in Trump’s first term, presidents typically picked lawyers to serve as U.S. attorneys who were members of the same political party, but that they would receive bipartisan support.
But now, Saltzburg said, “the qualifications for some of the people who are being named are simply they were loyal MAGA supporters,” referring to Trump's “Make American Great Again” movement.
Trump's administration has made clear it is willing to break down the wall that once separated the White House and Justice Department, Saltzburg said, and it appears that extends out to the U.S. attorneys’ offices as well.
“There’s a concern for the rule of law when everything looks like it’s being dictated by the White House,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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