(NEW YORK) — After a three-month battle over the legality of her appointment, Alina Habba has resigned from her position as the Acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

She announced her resignation as U.S. attorney in a social media post on Monday. She will remain serving as “Senior Adviser to the Attorney General for U.S. Attorneys.”

The resignation comes after a protracted legal fight about whether she could serve in the U.S. attorney role without Senate confirmation.

In August, a federal judge ruled that she was serving in the position “without lawful authority” and disqualified her as New Jersey’s top federal law enforcement officer.  A federal appeals court unanimously upheld that decision last week, and the Department of Justice has not appealed that decision.

“As a result of the Third Circuit’s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey,” Habba said in her statement. “But do not mistake compliance for surrender. This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.”“Following the flawed Third Circuit decision disqualifying Alina Habba from performing her duties in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of New Jersey, I am saddened to accept Alina’s resignation.

“Following the flawed Third Circuit decision disqualifying Alina Habba from performing her duties in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of New Jersey, I am saddened to accept Alina’s resignation,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will seek further review of this decision, and we are confident it will be reversed. Alina intends to return to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey if this occurs.”

Despite the rulings, Habba remained in the position after Attorney General Pam Bondi named her a “Special Attorney to the Attorney General,” though several judges delayed proceedings to consider the legality of her position.

Before she was appointed as U.S. attorney, Habba served as a personal defense attorney for President Donald Trump in his New York civil fraud case and defamation trials. Last month, a federal appeals court upheld a $1 million penalty against Habba and Trump for bringing a frivolous lawsuit against former FBI Director James Comey and Hillary Clinton.

The Trump administration has faced growing headwinds over its efforts to install Trump loyalists as top prosecutors in U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country, suffering a string of court defeats as judges raise concerns they’re actively disregarding the law.

Last month, a judge threw out both criminal cases against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after determining that Lindsey Halligan, a former insurance lawyer and White House aide with no prosecutorial experience, was unlawfully appointed to lead the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney’s Office.

While Bondi previously said the administration would appeal that ruling, as of Monday, no appeal has been filed, and last week, a grand jury rejected an effort by the administration to revive its case against James.

A growing chorus of judges for the Eastern District of Virginia has raised concerns that the administration appears to be defying the order that disqualified Halligan by continuing to include her signature and title on legal filings.

On Monday morning, Attorney General Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a joint statement attacking judges for questioning Halligan’s legitimacy in the role, and accused them of “engaging in an unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility.”

“Lindsey and our attorneys are simply doing their jobs: advocating for the Department of Justice’s positions while following guidance from the Office of Legal Counsel,” the statement said. “They do not deserve to have their reputations questioned in court for ethically advocating on behalf of their client. This Department of Justice has no tolerance for undemocratic judicial activism.”

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(PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.) — A 6-year-old girl died after she was injured at a trampoline adventure park in Florida, police said.

First responders were dispatched to an Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park in Port St. Lucie on Saturday for a “medical run” involving the child, according to local police.

The girl died from her injuries on Sunday, according to the Port St. Lucie Police Department.

“The investigation is still active and ongoing at this time and is pending the medical examiner’s findings,” a police department spokesperson said in a statement.

Police did not release any details on the incident or the nature of the injuries.

ABC News has reached out to the franchise location for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The Port St. Lucie location includes a number of attractions in addition to trampolines, including go karts, bumper cars, a zip line and laser tag.

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(NEW YORK) — A police officer who searched accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione’s backpack when he was apprehended at an Pennsylvania McDonald’s took the stand on Monday for the fourth day of a crucial pretrial hearing in which Mangione’s defense lawyers are trying to exclude from trial critical evidence that they say was illegally seized from his backpack without a warrant.

“Holly Jolly Christmas” was playing in the Altoona McDonald’s on Dec. 9, 2024, when officer Christy Wasser — a 19-year Altoona Police Department veteran — searched Mangione’s backpack, immediately pulling out a pocketknife and a loaf of bread, five days after Mangione allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk.

When Mangione was formally placed under arrest at 9:58 a.m., Wasser testified that she “walked over and picked up his backpack.”

Two minutes into the search, Wasser was seen on body camera video extracting “wet, grey underwear” from the backpack. “And when I opened it up, it was a magazine,” she testified.

Prosecutor Joel Seidemann asked it was “fully loaded,” and Wasser responded, “Yes.”

Wasser also said she discovered a phone in a Faraday bag, designed to conceal its signal.

An officer was heard suggesting that the bag be brought to the police station to check for bombs. Wasser was heard joking that she preferred to check it at the McDonald’s because she “didn’t want to pull a Moser” — a sarcastic reference, she said, to a former Altoona officer who brought a bomb to the police station.

At 10:03 a.m. an officer was heard on the camera footage mentioning a search warrant. A different officer was heard saying that one was not needed at that stage.

Defense lawyers have argued Wasser’s actions violated Mangione’s constitutional rights and should justify excluding any of the evidence found in the bag, including the alleged murder weapon and writings that prosecutors say amount to a confession.

“[The officer] did not search the bag because she reasonably thought there might be a bomb, but rather this was an excuse designed to cover up an illegal warrantless search of the backpack,” defense attorneys argued in a court filing. “This made-up bomb claim further shows that even she believed at the time that there were constitutional issues with her search, forcing her to attempt to salvage this debacle by making this spurious claim.”

Although Wasser’s initial search of the backpack uncovered the magazine, she missed the loaded handgun, silencer, and journal that were buried deeper in the bag, she testified.

Wasser testified that she only discovered the two items about 15 minutes later, when she conducted a further search after driving from the McDonald’s to the Altoona police station.

“There’s a weapon!” she’s heard shouting on the video footage to the other officers in the intake area, as Mangione was being searched just feet away with his ankles shackled.

“Is that the first time you opened that zipper section on the side?” Seidemann asked Wasser on the witness stand.

“Yes, sir,” she affirmed.  

With Mangione just feet away from her in the station’s intake area, she testified it would be “unwise” to continue the search near Mangione.

“Were the defendant’s hands free at the time you took out the gun?” asked Seidemann.

“Yes,” she testified.

Body camera footage showed Wasser and Deputy Chief Derek Swope take the weapon over to a nearby hallway — behind a locked door — where she cleared the gun. She mumbled — at times inaudibly — when she explained the situation to Swope on the video.

“We just checked the bag … to make sure there were no bombs or anything,” she said on the body camera footage.

As the search continued, Wasser quickly uncovered a silencer buried beneath other items in the bag. She also found a journal allegedly belonging to Mangione.

“Holy s—,” Swope can be heard saying in the body camera footage.

Wasser testified that she was cautious when checking the back because the nature of Mangione’s alleged crime “greatened [her] concern.”

“I just wanted to make sure there was nothing that could harm anybody,” she testified.

“Did any of your supervisors say, ‘Stop — go get a search warrant?'” asked Seidermann.  

“No,” she said.

The stationhouse backpack search also turned up a slip of paper with a crude, handwritten map of Pittsburgh, Wasser testified, as well as what Seidemann described as possible escape routes.

The note said, “Keep momentum, FBI slower overnight” and “Break CAM continuity.” Another line read, “3+ hrs off cam, exit diff method (ex: megabus, rail)” and a note saying “check reports for current situation.” The note also said, “bus to Penn station,” “change hat” and “either taxi … or cross river.”

Wasser was also heard on body camera footage saying she pulled hair clippers from Mangione’s bag.

Earlier in the body camera video — when she was still searching the bag at the McDonald’s while “The Twelve Days of Christmas” blared in the background — prosecutors highlighted an exchange between officers and a supervisor about whether a warrant was necessary. One officer remarked that a warrant might be needed “because of the severity of the case,” but their supervisor interjected to say that no warrant was required because the incident was a “search incident to arrest” — a warrantless search conducted of an area within the arrestee’s immediate surroundings.

Prosecutor Nichole Smith of Pennsylvania’s Blair County District Attorney’s office also testified, outlining the chain of custody of items seized from Mangione after he was apprehended.

Smith recalled a lieutenant from the Altoona Police Department calling her at 9:53 a.m. to advise her “that he had the individual responsible for the CEO shooting” at McDonald’s. Smith said she was in court at the time and interrupted the proceeding to inform her boss, Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks.

Smith said she and Weeks advised Altoona police to charge Mangione with forgery, carrying a firearm without a license, tampering with records for identification, possessing instruments of a crime and providing false identification to law enforcement.

Smith described a search warrant that obtained a court’s permission to seize Mangione’s belongings, including items in his backpack, and transfer them to the NYPD.

“Certain items in that bag were not inherently contraband, so we wanted to ensure that the court had approved,” Smith testified. “When they search the bag and they discover, for instance, the firearm, the ammunition and the suppressor, when he does not have a valid permit to carry those items concealed, they become contraband.”

Handwritten notes that police said they also discovered in Mangione’s backpack were not relevant to the local charges in Pennsylvania. Ordinarily, they would have been put aside and saved. The warrant allowed those items to be transferred as possible evidence in the New York case.

Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo objected to Seidemann referring to the writings as an alleged “manifesto” and Thompson’s killing as an “execution.” Judge Gregory Carro said it was fine for the ongoing suppression hearing but said, “You’re certainly not going to do that at trial.”

Last week, during the first week of the hearing, prosecutors called six witnesses, including the police officers who first confronted Mangione and the corrections officers who were tasked with constantly monitoring him before his transfer from a cell in Pennsylvania to New York.

Last week’s testimony shed new light on the events leading up to and following Mangione’s arrest, with the two officers who initially confronted Mangione recounting their experiences for the first time.

“It’s him. I have been seeing all the pictures. He is nervous as hell. I ask him, ‘Have you been in New York,’ he’s all quiet,” Altoona police officer Joseph Detwiler testified on Tuesday.

Prosecutors also showed in court never-before-seen security camera footage that captured the chilling moments after Mangione allegedly shot and killed Thompson in the predawn cold of New York City’s early winter. The videos provided the public with a clearer picture of the shooting and emergency response, as well as clues about the case prosecutors have built against the alleged killer.  

At least three people were in the immediate vicinity of the shooting, including a woman just feet away from the suspect. The woman’s identity and whether she has spoken with police are not known.

The video also shows the suspect — after firing multiple shots — walk toward the victim, glance down at him, cross the street, then run toward a nearby alleyway. A woman holding a cup of coffee outside the famed New York Hilton on Sixth Avenue is seen flinching after hearing the first gunshot, after which she sees Thompson stumble, then appears to look straight at the gunman before running off.

Seconds later, a man inside the hotel exits, sees Thompson on the ground, then appears to point to a nearby alleyway where the suspect fled. 

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