An intense federal manhunt has resulted in the arrest of a 51-year-old man accused of attacking acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba’s office earlier in the week.
Taken into custody was Keith Michael Lisa, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on X early Saturday morning.
First thanking the FBI, the U.S. Marshalls, and Homeland Security investigators, Bondi wrote, “No one will get away with threatening or intimidating our great US Attorneys or the destruction of their offices.”
“We got him,” Habba wrote in an X post, adding, “Now justice will handle him.”
According to authorities, on Wednesday Lisa allegedly showed up at the Peter W. Rodino Federal Building in Newark, New Jersey, while in possession of a baseball bat.
According to a “Wanted by the FBI” poster that offered a $25,000 reward, “After being denied entry, he discarded the bat and returned. Once inside the building, he proceeded to the US Attorney’s Office where he damaged government property.”
The poster warned the individual “should be considered dangerous” and described him as an imposing man at 6’3″ and more than 200 pounds.
The suspect made it all the way to the seventh floor of the building and began shouting and destroying property, according to the New York Post. Habba reportedly was not in her office at the time.
According to the FBI poster:
A federal arrest warrant was issued for Lisa on November 13, 2025, in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey after he was charged with Possession of a Dangerous Weapon in a Federal Facility and Depredation of Federal Property.
The news outlet Patch identified suspect Lisa as a former Mahwah, New Jersey, man, who online records showed was registered to vote In Bergen County in 2017.
It has not yet been reported as to why the suspect wanted to meet with Habba when he showed up at the building.
“I will not be intimidated by radical lunatics for doing my job,’ Habba wrote in an X post about the incident earlier in the week.
“Any violence or threats of violence against any federal officer will not be tolerated,” Bondi wrote in a Thursday X post. “This is unfortunately becoming a trend as radicals continue to attack law enforcement agents around the country.”
Habba has presented a high public profile as a lawyer and a campaign surrogate in candidate Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential race. She first emerged as one of his defense attorneys and spokespersons in his New York civil cases.
She was sworn in as acting U.S. Attorney for the New Jersey district in March.
Republicans have cited the incident as yet another in a continuing series of left-wing doxing, threats, and violence against people associated with President Trump and his policies, the most glaring being the assassination of activist Charlie Kirk.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
