Good morning. A judge on Thursday said the Trump administration’s appointment of New Jersey top federal prosecutor Alina Habba wasn’t lawful, in a decision that calls into question the novel workaround used to install several U.S. attorneys across the country.

The ruling: Chief U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann ruled that Habba, President Trump’s former private lawyer, “has acted unlawfully” in the role since July 1. He said Habba must be disqualified from participating in any ongoing cases, including those of criminal defendants who filed the challenge.

What next: The Justice Department could appeal the ruling. Brann said he would put his decision on hold while any appeal proceeds. Habba and a Justice Department spokesman didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Background: Trump in March appointed Habba, who was serving as White House counselor at the time, as interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey. Toward the end of her 120-day term, New Jersey’s federal district judges declined to extend Habba’s appointment, choosing her deputy instead.

The workaround: The administration then fired the deputy, and Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Habba as a “special attorney” and designated her first assistant U.S. attorney. Because the U.S. attorney role was vacant, by law, Habba then became acting U.S. attorney, putting her back in charge of the office. That workaround was at the center of the legal dispute over Habba’s authority.

SEC names military judge as enforcement chief.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has named Margaret Ryan, a senior military appellate judge, to serve as the head of its enforcement division, Risk Journal’s Max Fillion reports. 

Background: Ryan, who will take over the position on Sept. 2, has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces since 2006. She currently lectures on military law and justice at Harvard Law School. Before becoming a judge, she was a litigation partner at Wiley Rein and Bartlit Beck. She also served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Banking regulator ends enforcement action against Anchorage Digital Bank.

Anchorage Digital Bank has resolved an enforcement action from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The OCC said on Thursday that it had ended a cease-and-desist order it imposed on Anchorage Digital in 2022.

Bank’s response: Anchorage Digital Chief Executive Nathan McCauley, told Risk Journal that the company was able to resolve the action after it implemented “every corrective action outlined in the order” and “prove those actions worked in practice over time.” He added that the OCC also verified and validated the company’s progress in its compliance program.

Crypto turns to banking: The termination of the regulatory action comes as more crypto companies are looking to apply for bank charters or licenses, taking advantage of Trump administration moves to incorporate crypto into mainstream finance. 

• Two Mexican banks targeted by the U.S. Treasury for allegedly allowing cartel activity are selling off parts of their businesses, Risk Journal reports. 
   
• The U.K. government sanctioned Kyrgyzstan-based Capital Bank and its director Kantemir Chalbayev in its latest effort to crack down on Russian sanctions evasion.
   
• A New Jersey man who helped facilitate Russian arms dealing and a money-laundering operation was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
   
• A former Ukrainian military officer suspected of leading a team that sabotaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022 was detained in Italy on Wednesday under an international arrest warrant issued by German prosecutors, according to investigators and people familiar with the case.
   
• The top U.S. auto-safety regulator is investigating multiple delays by Tesla to submit crash reports that involve automated-driving systems.
   
• The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Trump administration for now to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in health research grants on topics the White House finds objectionable.

High auto tariffs on EU will stay until bloc moves to reduce levies.

The U.S. will keep the current 27.5% tariffs on automobiles from the European Union until the 27-nation bloc introduces legislation to reduce levies on a variety of U.S. goods, according to a joint statement released on Thursday.

The Trump administration will reduce automotive levies to 15% once the EU “introduces the necessary legislative proposal” to reduce tariffs on a range of U.S. seafood and agricultural goods, including “tree nuts, dairy products, fresh and processed fruits and vegetables,” according to the statement. It said the lower auto tariffs would take effect from the first day of the month the EU’s legislation is introduced.

• European Business Takes Trump Tariffs in Stride
• Canada PM Carney Touts ‘Productive’ Call With President Trump Over Trade
• Boeing in Talks to Sell China Hundreds of Planes as Part of U.S. Trade Deal

A union push at JPMorgan reveals tensions inside America’s largest bank.

Private group chats and internal message rooms started buzzing across JPMorgan Chase one morning this past spring after a firmwide email landed in employees’ in-boxes, reports Barron’s.

Changes were coming to the bank’s diversity, equity, and inclusion organization, said JPMorgan Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Piepszak in the March memo. The bank would run fewer workplace training sessions and rebrand the unit to “diversity, opportunity, and inclusion” while consolidating certain diversity-related groups.

Staff reaction: The pullback on diversity initiatives is just one issue for an unsettled employee base still reeling from the company’s decision to bring employees back to the office five days a week. The five-day in-office mandate, issued in January, led some staff to begin the first formal union drive at the bank.

• President Trump has ordered the Pentagon to send three Navy warships to interdict drug cartels off the coast of South America, including near Venezuela, expanding the Pentagon’s role in combating illegal drug smuggling and intensifying a U.S. confrontation with the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
   
• President Trump said Thursday that Ukraine would have to continue attacks on Russia to have any hope of winning the war, days after hosting two summits designed to end the conflict.
   
• Meta Platforms has frozen hiring in its artificial-intelligence division after spending months scooping up 50-plus AI researchers and engineers, according to people familiar with the matter.
   
• One in five U.S. employers surveyed by the Conference Board plans to slow hiring in the second half of 2025, nearly double the rate of companies that anticipated bringing on fewer people at this time last year.
   
• Flutter Entertainment’s FanDuel is dipping a toe into the popular but legally unsettled realm of prediction markets. The move might eventually pay out in a big way, according to analysts.
   
• Every time you ask Google’s Gemini a query, it takes the same amount of energy as watching nine seconds of TV.

• A New York appeals court threw out a more than $500 million penalty against President Trump and his business empire, in a sharply splintered ruling that paves the way for further proceedings before the state’s highest court.
   
• The Trump administration is considering taking equity stakes in companies receiving funds from the 2022 Chips Act but has no plans to seek shares in bigger semiconductor firms that are increasing their U.S. investments, according to a government official.
   
• Azruddin Mohamed, sanctioned by the U.S. for alleged tax evasion and gold smuggling, is running for president of Guyana.
   
• New York City Mayor Eric Adams suspended a former City Hall aide who was volunteering on his re-election campaign after she handed a potato chip bag full of cash to a reporter.
   
• If you need to leave the office at 4 p.m. to pick up your kid, that’s fine in more workplaces now. If you roll in at 10 a.m., prepare to be stink-eyed.

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