President Trump holds a swearing-in ceremony for Alina Habba to become U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The President Well, thank you very much, everybody.
00:02We have Paula White, who's been very inspirational in doing the campaign, and our friend.
00:09And Alina has requested a prayer.
00:13And Paula, if you would do the honors, please.
00:16MS.
00:17WHITE Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus.
00:21And on this very divine appointment of Alina Haba, we thank you that you have chosen her
00:26before the foundations of the Earth.
00:28I ask that you would give your wisdom, according to James 1.5, and as she moves into this new
00:33season and this divine appointment, that she will protect the innocent, that she will always
00:39rule righteously, that she will stand in your peace and reign in truth and justice.
00:46I secure her family, her life, her calling, and her purpose.
00:51We thank you for President Trump.
00:53We thank you for this opportunity for all of us to secure this in the name that is above
00:59all names, the name of Jesus.
01:01Amen.
01:02THE PRESIDENT Thank you very much, Paula.
01:08Before we begin, we have a little announcement.
01:10It's just going to be put out over the wires that Skadden Ops, the highly respected firm
01:18Skadden Ops, Slate, Meager, and Flom announced the following agreement regarding a series
01:24of actions that were taken by Skadden.
01:28And it reads, number one, Skadden will provide a total of at least $100 million in pro bono
01:35legal services during the Trump administration and beyond to cause that the President and
01:41Skadden both support.
01:43This is something we both support in relation to the following areas, assisting veterans
01:48and other public servants, including members of the military, law enforcement, and on and
01:54on.
01:55Number two, Skadden will commit to the mission of providing pro bono legal services to a
02:01wide variety deserving organizations and individuals.
02:05Skadden is committed to funding no fewer than five Skadden fellows.
02:10That's a scholarship fund that they've set up.
02:14And number three, and again, we're going to put this out in much greater detail that Skadden
02:17affirms and commits to merit based hiring, promotion and retention.
02:24Again, that will go on for a little while and you'll read that.
02:28And Skadden will not deny any representation to clients such as its members or members
02:33of politically disenfranchised groups who have not historically received legal representation
02:39from major national law firms, et cetera.
02:42So this is going out now and I'm instructing my people to release it.
02:48And this just was announced so you can you'll get it in.
02:53This was essentially a settlement and you'll be able to read that in great detail.
02:59We appreciate Skadden's coming to the table.
03:02As you know, other law firms have like likewise settled the case.
03:07And it's a shame what's you know, what's gone on.
03:12Always a shame.
03:13But we very much appreciate their coming to the table.
03:17But we're here for right now a different reason.
03:19It's a very important one because today we're thrilled to swear in our interim U.S. attorney
03:24for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba.
03:36And I want to just congratulate, along with your husband, Greg, and your children, your
03:42wonderful parents who I've gotten to know over the years, great parents and a great
03:46family.
03:47So congratulations.
03:48And to Luke, Chloe and Parker.
03:51That's great.
03:52You're proud, right?
03:53Of your father and your mother.
03:54Right.
03:55Both.
03:56Not just your mom.
03:57Right.
03:58Your father.
03:59He's done pretty well.
04:00He's a good guy and very successful man.
04:02I also want to thank Attorney General Pam Bondi.
04:04She's been incredible, by the way.
04:06She's I don't want to brag, but I've been watching her for the last couple of weeks
04:10and she's been incredible.
04:11Thank you very much, Pam.
04:17And a couple of others who have been really outstanding Secretary of Commerce, Howard
04:22Lutnick.
04:23Thank you, Howard.
04:24Thank you very much.
04:27And I think I see Scott there.
04:28He has been.
04:29This is somebody at the Treasury.
04:33Nobody's going to outfox Scott, right?
04:35Nobody.
04:36And he's waiting for Liberation Day, right?
04:40Which is April 2nd.
04:42We wanted to do it April 1st, but that has some negative connotation.
04:48And I see Sebastian Gorka there.
04:50Thank you, Sebastian.
04:51Very much.
04:52That's very much.
04:53Kevin.
04:54Thank you very much.
04:55We have great people.
04:56Susie Wiles, most powerful woman in the world, who's just rated the most powerful woman in
05:04the world.
05:05I don't know about it.
05:06I guess it's true.
05:07What do you think?
05:08Anyway, thank you, Susie.
05:09And Director Kash Patel.
05:11Where's Kash?
05:12Kash is fantastic.
05:13Fantastic.
05:14Thank you, Kash.
05:17So Alina is a proud New Jersey native.
05:20She was born and raised in Summit and now lives in Bernardsville with her family.
05:25Beautiful area of our country.
05:28After a career leading a successful law practice in the state, very successful, Alina joined
05:33my legal team several years ago and helped spearhead the effort to defeat the corrupt
05:37and grotesque weapon in our justice system.
05:41She was very effective at doing it, and I want to thank you for doing it.
05:45You took a lot of abuse, and now they're all sort of apologizing.
05:50So anyway, but we appreciate it.
05:53Great job you did.
05:54Thank you for allowing her to do it, because your life wasn't made any easier, was it?
06:00They even came after him.
06:02They didn't come after the kids.
06:03They would have waited about a year or two.
06:05You're very lucky.
06:06You're very lucky.
06:08But through her work, Alina became a nationally recognized warrior for the fair, equal, and
06:12impartial rule of law.
06:14She also serves as a key member of my successful 2024 campaign for president.
06:20You saw her doing a lot of explaining and doing it very well.
06:25And upon my inauguration, she joined the White House as senior staff.
06:30She was a senior staff member as the counselor to the president, and she counseled me very
06:37well.
06:38Alina has been named to the Super Lawyers Rising Stars list every year since 2014, and
06:45also earned a spot on the top 100 lawyers in America numerous times.
06:51As a young person, it's very unusual to have achieved that.
06:55As U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Alina will work tirelessly to weed out crime and corruption
07:00and restore law and order to the Garden State, as we call it.
07:03It's the Garden State.
07:04It's a great place.
07:06I think it's highly underrated.
07:07It's a great place to be and to live, and we all love it.
07:11Under the last administration, violent crime in New Jersey, however, rose more than 60
07:17percent.
07:18And under the last administration, violent crime throughout the country rose at levels
07:22that are higher than that and unacceptable.
07:25And we're bringing it down, and we're getting rid of a lot of bad people, and they're being
07:30taken out.
07:31And we hope this court system that's become so active all of a sudden in trying to protect
07:36some very, very bad people of crime, they have to stop.
07:43They have to let us do the job.
07:45We were elected to do the job.
07:47They shouldn't be interfering in that.
07:48It's a very sad thing that's gone.
07:50Nobody can even believe it.
07:52They'd rather have them stay in our country.
07:54These are murderers in many cases and people about as bad as we've ever seen.
07:59And they have to let us do the job.
08:01They have to let Cash and Pam and everybody else do their job.
08:05Alina will take on the violence and the lawbreaking in Newark, however, and Camden and all parts
08:10of New Jersey.
08:11And she'll be as good as it gets, because there's a lot of bad things happening there,
08:17too.
08:18She'll stop the graft and corruption in Trenton, and she'll persecute human traffickers, gang
08:22members, illegal aliens and criminal cartels to the fullest extent of the law.
08:28And between Pam and Alina, you don't want them after you, I can tell you.
08:32I watched Pam two days ago talking about what was so unfair to a patriot, what was happening.
08:38And she said, we're watching you, we're looking for you, and you're not going to get away
08:43with it.
08:45You did very well.
08:47I think a lot of that stuff has stopped.
08:50They watched and they said, who needs this?
08:52Right, Pam?
08:53So thank you very much.
08:54Really amazing job that you're doing.
08:56So Alina, I want to congratulate you now.
08:58I will ask Pam, our attorney general, to come up and do the honors of swearing in.
09:03And this is a great day for law enforcement in our country.
09:07Thank you very much.
09:15Okay.
09:18Place your left hand on the Bible.
09:20All right, and raise your right hand.
09:22I do solemnly swear.
09:24I, Alina Haba, do solemnly swear.
09:26That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
09:30That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
09:34Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
09:36Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
09:39That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.
09:43That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.
09:46That I take this obligation freely.
09:48That I take this obligation freely.
09:50Without any...
10:14Without any...
10:21Thank you so much, President Trump.
10:24Thank you, Pam Bondi.
10:25Thank you, more importantly, to every person in this room.
10:28There are so many people that I won't even try to start naming them.
10:31I would not be standing here today if it was not for the man to my right.
10:36If, as a person who's a first-generation American, with parents that came in legally,
10:42I would like to say that I do not ever, ever take for granted
10:47that every dream that I ever could have imagined,
10:50I have surpassed because of this administration, because of President Trump.
10:54Four years ago, he entrusted faith in me as his personal attorney.
10:57And I have been on the journey of a lifetime.
11:00Every single day for that.
11:01But I have also been with him through some very dark days
11:03when I lost faith in our justice system.
11:06When I saw things that I never, ever thought I would ever see.
11:10And from being outside the courtroom steps, defending him and defending our great nation,
11:15I saw the most resilience I've ever seen in my life.
11:17This man kept fighting for America, and I'm just so honored
11:20that now I get to fight for the state of New Jersey.
11:22I will do a good job, sir. I will clean it up.
11:24And we're going to make New Jersey great again.
11:26Thank you so much. Thank you.
11:34Thank you very much.
11:35Do you have any questions, please?