Habba set to remain as top prosecutor in New Jersey after White House maneuver
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s attempt to ensure his pick remains in charge of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey has taken a new twist.
On Thursday, one day before Alina Habba’s tenure as the Interim United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey was set to expire, the White House withdrew her nomination for the post.
Habba then announced on social media that she is now the Acting United States Attorney, seemingly restarting the clock on what is usually a 120-day temporary term. Trump first appointed Habba as the state’s interim U.S. attorney in March.
“I don’t cower to pressure. I don’t answer to politics. This is a fight for justice. And I’m all in,” Habba wrote on social media.
The unorthodox legal maneuver appears to end a stalemate that began when federal judges in New Jersey selected Desiree Leigh Grace, an experienced federal prosecutor, over Habba, the president’s former personal attorney and choice to lead the office. The Department of Justice quickly stated that it fired Grace, leaving unclear who would take over the office.
In a social media post, Grace stated that she would still be willing to lead the office “in accordance with the law.”
“The District Judges for the District of New Jersey selected me to serve as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. It will forever be the greatest honor that they selected me on merit, and I’m prepared to follow that Order and begin to serve in accordance with the law,” she wrote.
The Trump administration’s move to pull Habba’s nomination and then install her in an acting capacity appears to take advantage of a section of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which allows an acting officer to serve in a position for no more than 210 days if no one is nominated to the position.
(WASHINGTON) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired two top deputies at the Department of Health and Human Services, ABC News has learned.
Heather Flick Melanson, Kennedy’s chief of staff, and Hannah Anderson, deputy chief of staff of policy, are departing, according to a department spokesperson and another person familiar with the decisions.
Neither Flick nor Anderson immediately responded to an ABC News request for comment.
No reason was given for the ousters. The person familiar with the situation told ABC that Kennedy “has every right to make personnel decisions.”
“Secretary Kennedy has made a leadership change within the Immediate Office of the Secretary,” according to a statement provided by an HHS spokesperson to ABC News. “Effective immediately, Matt Buckham will serve as Acting Chief of Staff.”
“Mr. Buckham currently serves as the Kennedy’s White House liaison at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he oversees the recruitment and onboarding of political appointees across the agency. He brings valuable experience in personnel strategy and organizational management to this new role,” the statement continued.
“Secretary Kennedy thanks the outgoing leadership for their service and looks forward to working closely with Mr. Buckham as the Department continues advancing its mission to Make America Healthy Again,” the statement concluded.
(WASHINGTON) — GOP Sen. Thom Tillis was back on Capitol Hill on Monday as Senate Republicans struggled to pass their “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” he opposes — before President Donald Trump’s July Fourth deadline.
“I may look for an opportunity to speak again,” Tillis said during his fiery remarks on the Senate floor on Sunday night, in which he urged his Republican colleagues to reconsider their support for the GOP tax bill, which he said “breaks” President Donald Trump’s promises to protect Medicaid.
But on Monday it remained unclear whether any of his fellow Republicans would go along.
Monday morning, as lawmakers began another long day of debate, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer lauded Tillis for his remarks calling out the GOP megabill’s provisions he said would slash Medicaid in his home state of North Carolina.
“I salute my colleague from North Carolina. We all heard what our colleague from North Carolina had to say yesterday about this bill. My guess is about half — maybe more than half of the Republicans in the Senate agree with him. But he had the courage to speak the truth,” Schumer on Monday morning, as a vote-a-rama on the bill began.
“He said it himself: the bill devastates his state but make no mistake about it, it will devastate the states of almost every Republican here,” Schumer added.
But how Tillis will navigate the rest of his term in the Senate — and perhaps the rest of the reconciliation bill’s consideration — remains to be seen — after he abruptly announced he wouldn’t run for reelection when Trump threatened to support a GOP primary challenger.
While his speech railing against the measure’s Medicaid cuts displayed some of the “pure freedom” he noted in his retirement announcement “to call the balls and strikes as I see fit,” Tillis also told reporters at the Capitol on Sunday that he would never do anything to “undermine” or “surprise” the Senate Republican Conference.
“Look, here’s the thing, I was a leader. I’m never going to do anything to undermine my conference, and I’m never going to surprise my conference,” Tillis said..
“I let Senator Thune last night know that I intended to do this today. I’m not that kind of guy. I mean, if you’ve got a surprise or jam your conference to get something done, you’re a pretty shitty legislator, and that’s just not my style,” he went on.
“So, I’m going to stand behind John and the leadership and do everything I can to make them successful,” Tillis said.
In his speech to “explain” his vote Saturday against the motion to move forward on the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” he condemned the legislation.
“What do I tell 663,000 people in two years, three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding is not there anymore, guys?” Tillis asked at one point. “The people in the White House advising the president, they’re not telling him that the effect of this bill is to break a promise.”
He said blasted the president’s self-imposed July 4th deadline to pass the legislation as “artificial.”
“I believe that we can make sure that we do not break the promise of Donald J. Trump — that he’s made to the people on Medicaid today,” Tillis went on. “But what we’re doing because we’ve got a view on an artificial deadline on July 4 that means nothing but another date and time we could take the time to get this right, if we lay down the house mark of the Medicaid bill and fix it.”
“What’s wrong with actually understanding what this bill does?” he said.
Tillis laid out how he’d done the work of understanding the bill over recent weeks, talking with leaders in North Carolina and members of the Trump administration about the impacts of the legislation’s Medicaid provisions on his state.
He said administration officials could not disprove his findings that there would be about a $26 billion cut in Medicaid across North Carolina as a result of the bill.
Tillis said he started his fact-finding process by asking Republican staff in the North Carolina legislature, members of Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s team and to the non-partisan Hospital Association for their estimates about this bill’s cuts to Medicaid in North Carolina.
“I asked three different independent groups: a partisan Democrat group, a partisan Republican group of experts, and a nonpartisan group of the Hospital Association to develop an intact assessment, independent, not talking, not sharing, reporting to me, and what I found is the best case scenario is about a $26 billion cut,” Tillis said.
He said when he presented those findings to the Trump administration, they were rejected.
“I had people in the administration say, you’re all wet, you don’t know what you’re doing,” he said.
Tillis concluded by saying that the Senate “owes it to the American people” to withhold advancement of the bill ” until it’s demonstrated to me that we’ve done our homework.”
“We’re going to make sure that we fulfill the promise And then we can feel — I can feel — good about a bill that I’m willing to vote for, but until that time, I will be withholding my vote,” Tillis said.
LONDON — President Donald Trump is expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin at around 10 a.m. ET on Monday, as the White House continues its push for an end to Moscow’s 3-year-old invasion of Ukraine after last week’s peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey.
“The subjects of the call will be, stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade,” Trump wrote in a post to his Truth Social website on Saturday.
“I will then be speaking to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and then, with President Zelenskyy, various members of NATO,” Trump added.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed to journalists on Monday that the call would take place at 5 p.m. Moscow time — 10 a.m. ET — the state-run Tass news agency reported.
Renewed direct contact with Putin — the last publicly known direct phone call between the two presidents took place in February — comes after Trump’s hopes for peace talks progress in Istanbul were scuppered, Putin having declined to attend despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s invitation to do so.
The Istanbul talks were the first known meeting between representatives of Moscow and Kyiv since spring 2022, when the Turkish city hosted the final round of unsuccessful peace negotiations to end Russia’s unfolding invasion.
Once it became clear Putin would not attend, Trump told reporters of the peace effort, “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together, okay?”
“And obviously he wasn’t going to go,” Trump added. “He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together, but we’re going to have to get it solved, because too many people are dying.”
Trump’s repeated threats of further sanctions on Russia have so far failed to precipitate any notable shift in Moscow’s war goals — which, according to public statements by officials, still include Ukraine’s ceding of four regions — which Russian forces do not fully control — plus Crimea, as well as a permanent block on Kyiv’s accession to NATO.
Putin said Sunday that any peace deal with Ukraine should “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis” and “guarantee Russia’s security.”
Kyiv and its European backers are still pushing for a full 30-day ceasefire, during which time they say peace negotiations can take place. Moscow has thus far refused to support the proposal, suggesting that all Western military aid to Ukraine would have to stop as part of any ceasefire.
Contacts between U.S., Russian and Ukrainian officials continued after the end of the talks in Istanbul. On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Rubio welcomed a prisoner exchange agreement reached during the Istanbul meeting and emphasized Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire.
Vice President JD Vance also met with Zelenskyy at the Vatican on Saturday, following Pope Leo XIV’s offer to host a bilateral meeting.
After the meeting, Zelenskyy wrote on X that he had “reaffirmed that Ukraine is ready to be engaged in real diplomacy and underscored the importance of a full and unconditional ceasefire as soon as possible.”
“We have also touched upon the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, battlefield situation and upcoming prisoners exchange,” Zelenskyy continued. “Pressure is needed against Russia until they are eager to stop the war.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Monday wrote on X that the Istanbul meeting highlighted a “stark difference” between Moscow and Kyiv. “Ukraine is forward-looking, focused on the full and immediate ceasefire to kickstart the real peace process. To the contrary, Russia is completely focused on the past, rejecting the ceasefire and instead talking constantly about the 2022 Istanbul meetings, attempting to make the same absurd demands as three years ago.”
“This is yet another reason why pressure on Russia must be increased,” Sybiha added. “Moscow must now understand the consequences of impeding the peace process.”
Meanwhile, long-range strikes by both sides continued. On Sunday night into Monday morning, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 112 drones into the country, 76 of which were shot down or jammed. Damage was reported in five regions of Ukraine, the air force said in a post to Telegram.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday morning that its forces had downed 35 Ukrainian drones overnight.
