A suspect accused of ransacking Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba’s office on Wednesday is in custody, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said.
“No one will get away with threatening or intimidating our great US Attorneys or the destruction of their offices,” Bondi said Saturday in a statement on social media, thanking law enforcement.
Bondi did not identify the suspect.
Sources told CBS News that the suspect was a man who had been denied entry to the building because he had a baseball bat. Later that day, he returned without a bat, requested and was denied a meeting with the acting U.S. attorney. He then began smashing things in the waiting area before fleeing the scene.
The New York Times was first to report that the person tried to enter Habba’s office with a bat.
Habba posted on social media Saturday, “We got him.” She thanked Bondi and said U.S. federal partners will not tolerate any acts of intimidation or violence toward law enforcement, adding, “Now justice will handle him.”
Habba has served as the Justice Department’s top prosecutor in New Jersey since March. The president initially nominated his former personal attorney to be New Jersey’s Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney, but later withdrew her nomination and kept her in the role on an acting basis, a move that has faced some legal pushback.
