Alina Habba Wins Push To Drop Foreign Bribery Case Citing Trump Order

On Wednesday, Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba formally dropped a years-long foreign bribery case, days after a federal judge declined to halt proceedings despite an executive order from President Trump suspending enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The case, initially filed in 2019, involved two former executives of Cognizant Technology Solutions, a Teaneck, NJ-based outsourcing company. They were accused of approving payments to an Indian official to speed up construction on a major facility in Chennai, as reported by the New York Post.

In a court document filed last week, Habba stated, “After consultation with the Office of the Attorney General, the Government hereby moves to dismiss this matter.” She noted that the decision stemmed from “the recent assessment of the Executive Order’s application to this matter.”

U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, based in Newark, had earlier denied a six-month postponement sought by Habba’s predecessor, John Giordano, who invoked Trump’s executive order in his request. Instead, the judge gave federal prosecutors two options: continue with the trial on its scheduled April 7 start date or move to drop the case altogether.

Farbiarz—appointed by former President Joe Biden—approved Habba’s motion to dismiss the charges in a short ruling on Thursday. This decision came without the extended deliberations seen in a similar case involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

“The motion is granted,” Farbiarz wrote in his decision, according to The Post.

Although Farbiarz did not challenge Habba on this matter, he is at the center of another ongoing legal dispute tied to Trump-era immigration policy. That case focuses on the attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student and vocal critic of Israel.

On Tuesday, Farbiarz denied the administration’s effort to relocate Khalil’s case to Louisiana, where he is currently held.

The now-dismissed case concerned former Cognizant president Gordon Coburn and ex-chief legal officer Steven Schwartz. Just last month, Farbiarz turned down a request to push the trial date, citing Acting U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna’s assurance that “the Government intends to proceed to trial” even after Trump’s February 10 order implementing a 180-day freeze on FCPA enforcement.

Khanna, brother to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), continued as acting U.S. Attorney until March 2—more than a month into Trump’s presidency.

Back in 2019, Cognizant paid $25 million to resolve SEC allegations that it had bribed a Tamil Nadu government official, including a $2 million payment made in 2014. President Trump, in recent remarks, expressed support for the executives involved and criticized the FCPA as a barrier to global trade.

“It sounds so good, but it’s so bad. It hurts the country, and many, many deals are unable to be made because of it,” Trump said in February while signing the executive order that suspended FCPA enforcement.

“Nobody wants to do business because they don’t want to feel like every time they pick up a phone, they’re going to jail. So, we’ll sign this, and it takes courage to sign it because you only get bad publicity when you sign it. It sounds so nice,” he added.

Habba, who is from New Jersey, originally joined the Trump administration as a counselor to the president. She was later appointed as acting U.S. attorney for her home state.

Before her appointment, Habba appeared on Fox News’ America Reports, where she spoke with hosts John Roberts and Sandra Smith about the president’s return to office and his early days back in power.

“There was a mandate. It was on November 5th and we swept the country, and that’s because they weren’t OK with what the last administration did,” she said. “So, the mandate does not come from the legislative history; it comes from the American people who voted for President Trump and his America First agenda.

“And that is what we’re going to do. And that is what we are doing, exactly what Americans voted for, and we are going to continue to do that,” she added.