By Kara Scannell

(CNN) — The chief district judge in New Jersey appointed Robert Frazer, a career prosecutor, to serve as US attorney for the state, ending for now a dispute over the legality of the office’s leadership that threatened to derail criminal investigations.

Frazer is a longtime prosecutor who has worked on violent crime and gang organized crime cases, and most recently served as senior trial counsel.

Frazer’s appointment could end the chaos that has been unfolding in New Jersey for weeks as court rulings finding the office’s structure unlawful led to judges cancelling plea hearings and sentencings.

Chief Judge for the District of New Jersey Renee Marie Bumb signed the order appointing Frazer to the role on Monday.

Frustrations boiled over last week when Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, a former prosecutor, cancelled the sentencing of a defendant who pled guilty to child pornography charges and ordered the senior leadership at the US attorney’s office to testify under oath before him in May.

“Generations of Assistant US Attorneys had built the goodwill of that office for your generation to destroy it within a year,” Judge Quraishi said to a prosecutor during the hearing, according to a transcript.

The uncertainty in the New Jersey prosecutors’ office unfolded last summer. President Donald Trump placed Alina Habba, his former personal lawyer, into the position as interim US attorney last year.

When her 120-day term expired in July, the district judges refused to extend her appointment and picked Desiree Leigh Grace, the office’s First Assistant US Attorney, to the position.

Attorney General Pam Bondi fired Grace and Habba was reinstated and designated acting US attorney — a move defendants said was illegal.

Federal Judge Matthew Brann ruled last summer that Habba was illegally appointed as the acting US attorney in the District of New Jersey. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision.

Bondi later appointed a trio of attorneys to split Habba’s role: Philip Lamparello, Jordan Fox and Ari Fontecchio.

Earlier this month, Brann found Bondi didn’t have the ability to create an alternative leadership structure in that way. In his opinion he warned, “If the government chooses to leave the triumvirate in place, it does so at its own risk.”

Mark Coyne, chief of the appeals division at the US attorney’s office in New Jersey, informed Brann on Monday that Frazer’s appointment “followed consultations between the District Court and the Department of Justice’s senior leadership.”

Coyne, who has appeared before several judges as a senior official from the office, was ordered to leave the courtroom last week by Quraishi.

The reported collaboration between the court and DOJ leadership suggests a change in tactic by the Justice Department, which has publicly clashed with district judges over their appointments of US attorneys in several districts.

Last month, the district judge’s choice to run the US attorney’s office for the Northern District of New York was fired hours after he was sworn in. At the time, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on X, “Judges don’t pick US attorney’s, @POTUS does.”

Rahul Agarwal, one of the lawyers who challenged the legality of the triumvirate, was supervised by Frazer when he was a junior prosecutor in the office. He said Frazer is a “tremendously good prosecutor” with an “outstanding” reputation among judges in the district. Frazer built his career prosecuting violent criminals, he said.

“He comes to the job having done it across a number of administrations. His reputation is someone who has always been on the right side of the line,” Agarwal said.

Habba, who resigned as acting US attorney under after a federal appeals court found her appointment unlawful, praised Frazer’s appointment. She is now a senior adviser to Bondi.

“New Jersey deserves a great chief federal law enforcement official who is in line with President Trump’s agenda of making this country safe and NJ great! I know Rob well and he will be a great champion of this state and mission of the @TheJusticeDept,” Habba said on X. She praised the collaboration between judges, Bondi, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

The Justice Department has lost every legal challenge made over the legality of US attorney appointments — including the districts of New Jersey, Nevada, New Mexico, the Central District of California, Northern District of New York, and Eastern District of Virginia.

It’s unclear if the consultation in New Jersey will extend to other districts.

Last week, the appointment of Brad Schimel as interim US attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin expired. The majority of district court judges declined to extend his position, stating it “awaits the nomination and confirmation of a full-time United States Attorney by the President and United States Senate.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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