District of Columbia General Practice Lawyers

General Practice Law

950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20530, USA

Alina Habba was named senior advisor to the attorney general for United States attorneys in a Justice Department announcement dated December 8, 2025. Her earlier federal service was in the District of New Jersey, where she held an interim United States attorney appointment and subsequently asserted authority to serve in an acting capacity. Her New Jersey work included announcing a tax prosecution result in April 2025. Michael DiPaolo Jr. pleaded guilty to filing a false income tax return after failing to report restaurant income. The department reported approximately $590,000 in avoided federal income taxes. Habba credited IRS-Criminal Investigation agents with the investigation; the release separately identified Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Friedman as the lawyer representing the government. Her authority to lead the office became the subject of litigation. In an August 21, 2025 memorandum opinion, the district court concluded that she had exercised the office’s functions without lawful authority since July 1. It ordered her disqualified from participating in ongoing cases, including the prosecutions of Cesar Humberto Pina and Julien Giraud Jr. and Julien Giraud III. The opinion stated that the problem with her approval of Pina’s indictment did not require its dismissal. The December personnel announcement placed Habba in an advisory assignment rather than describing her as New Jersey’s chief prosecutor. It assigned supervision or conduct of the district’s criminal, civil, appellate and administrative work to Philip Lamparello, Jordan Fox and Ari Fontecchio.