Mother Jones
Why Is Trump’s New Jersey US Attorney Headlining a Far-Right Conference?
On Friday, March 28, Alina Habba, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, was sworn into office as the interim US attorney for New Jersey. As the state’s top federal prosecutor, she will oversee the work of 170 lawyers responsible for everything from prosecuting terrorism, public corruption, and gang activities to defending federal agencies in court. The high-profile post was once held by such luminaries as US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).
So it came as a bit of a surprise three days later when I received this text: “Join Eric Trump & Alina Habba Sept 25-26” for promoter Clay Clark’s “Make American Business Great Again” conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Clicking the accompanying link, I learned that, for $250, conference attendees will hear inspirational words from Habba and other minor MAGA celebs and learn how to grow their business through search engine optimization, branding, sales training, and more!
It’s an unusual event for a US attorney, even an interim one, to participate in. But then again, Habba isn’t your typical federal prosecutor. Indeed, she has no prosecutorial experience of any kind. One of her most famous cases led a federal judge in Florida to sanction her and Trump for nearly $1 million in 2023 for filing a frivolous lawsuit against Hillary Clinton. “No reasonable lawyer would have filed it,” US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks wrote of the suit in his order for sanctions. “Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim.”
While she may not have a typical prosecutor’s résumé, Habba has loads of experience headlining Clark’s conferences.
This will be epic. Making your business great by getting tips from successful businesses people. Tickets are limited Get yours today.
With @TheClayClark @EricTrump @AlinaHabba @AmandaGrace_AOG pic.twitter.com/uGbsUFHN1v— Dr. Stella Immanuel MD (@stella_immanuel) April 1, 2025
Clark is a former DJ and failed Tulsa mayoral candidate turned conspiracy theorist who rose to conservative prominence fighting mask mandates during the pandemic. “Make American Business Great Again” is a spin-off of the far-right Christian nationalist ReAwaken America tour that he created in 2021 with Trump’s disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn. For three years, the pair barnstormed across the country doing events that featured a mash-up of MAGA luminaries, anti-vaxxers, election deniers, “prophets,” and QAnon devotees.
The last ReAwaken America event took place in North Carolina in October shortly before the election. Habba was there along with a rogue’s gallery of MAGA stars who’d once been prosecuted by the very Justice Department she is now part of. There was Simone Gold, the anti-vax doctor who served nearly 60 days in prison after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge related to the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. International underwear model John Strand, who’d joined the mob inside the Capitol alongside Gold, took the stage only a few months after serving a year in prison on a felony conviction related to the riot. (Strand and Gold were among the 1,500 or so January 6 rioters Trump pardoned after taking office.)
Former (and current) Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro appeared, fresh off a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with a January 6 committee subpoena. And let’s not forget Trump confidant Roger Stone. Just before Stone headed to prison on a 40-month sentence for lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction charges related to the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump commuted his sentence and later granted him a full pardon.
Trump’s election seemed to have dampened the demand for more ReAwaken events, especially now that regulars like Habba are in the administration. (FBI Director Kash Patel used to peddle his children’s books about Donald the King in the tour’s exhibit halls.) But Clark has continued to host periodic conferences focused on business development.
The September event will include some veterans of the ReAwaken tour. Not only will it feature Habba and the president’s son Eric, but attendees will be treated to talks from Stella Immanuel, a Texas doctor and pastor who rocketed to fame during the pandemic and became one of the nation’s leading prescribers of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, which she promoted as cures for Covid despite evidence that the drugs don’t work for it. Immanuel also believes that sex with “tormenting spirits” is responsible for gynecological problems. Rounding out the lineup will be Amanda Grace, a self-proclaimed prophet who warned attendees at a 2023 ReAwaken conference about the proliferation of technologically advanced “mermaids and water people” spreading perversion across the United States.
A Federalist Society meeting this is not.
Generally, Justice Department officials shy away from political appearances. “It harms public confidence in the rule of law for a United States attorney to be a prominent speaker at a conference with a partisan political or ideological focus,” says New York University law school ethics professor Stephen Gillers. “To avoid that, we have traditionally relied on good judgment and self-restraint.”
Good judgment and self-restraint, though, seem to be in short supply in the Trump administration thus far. Habba isn’t the only interim US attorney who seems to be blurring the boundaries between political activity and government service. Last month, acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin headlined a Florida fundraiser for Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, a conservative group he ran before joining the administration. The event was attended by January 6 defendants, including former members of the Oath Keepers militia who are still appealing their seditious conspiracy convictions in cases overseen by his office.
Over the weekend, the Nevada Independent reported that interim US Attorney for Nevada Sigal Chattah had called in to a state Republican Party meeting, potentially in violation of Justice Department rules that prohibit political appointees from participating in political activities or holding party positions. Chattah has been a national committeewoman for the Republican National Committee, and the meeting agenda indicated that she was scheduled to give a report. As of Monday, she was still listed on the RNC website as holding the party post.
Habba was tapped for the US attorney post in spite of her regular appearances at Clark’s events, or her fondness for Flynn, the ReAwaken tour’s animating force. Flynn pleaded guilty twice to lying to federal investigators about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the US during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump pardoned him in November 2020. Last year, he premiered an eponymous documentary about his legal ordeal. When it was released, Habba tweeted: “Thrilled to congratulate my friend and one of the all-time greatest patriots General Michael Flynn on his new movie sharing his incredibly important story.”
Like the conferences he emceed, Flynn has been a prominent promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds that Democrats and Satan-worshipping elites are running a secret global child sex ring, one they believe Trump will vanquish. The ReAwaken America tour frequently featured Q-related figures, such as the editor of George magazine. Originally created by the late John F. Kennedy Jr., George has been revived by QAnon believers who think Kennedy is still alive and is going to help Trump fight the pedophile cabal. (The magazine recently featured Habba’s fellow conference headliner Amanda Grace in a long Q&A.)
Habba, too, has appeared on QAnon-adjacent podcasts and suggested that many of the court cases brought against President Trump were the work of Satan. “There’s God’s plan and then there’s the demonic plan,” Habba explained to Grace in January 2024 when she appeared on the online prophet’s YouTube show. “We need to fight these people that are obviously coordinated and are trying to have a crusade of election interference.”
Obsessed with pedophile rings, QAnon adherents have turned human trafficking into their cause célèbre. Flynn himself now heads a nonprofit group that purports to fight child trafficking. Perhaps it’s no surprise then, that one of Habba’s first acts as New Jersey’s interim US attorney was to create a task force to combat human trafficking. “There will be zero tolerance for human trafficking in New Jersey,” she tweeted on April 1. “One of my first orders of buisiness [sic] was creating a Human Trafficking Task Force and appointing an incredibly talented and passionate Assistant US Attorney to lead it.”
The New Jersey US attorney’s office did not respond to questions about whether Habba still intends to attend the conference in September, nor did Clay Clark. As interim US attorney, she is allowed to stay in her post for only 120 days unless Trump formally nominates her for the job and the Senate confirms her. Should that not work out, her tenure could end just in time for her to hit the circuit in September.