The Trump administration is eyeing a law partner of ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani to head up the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office — one of the most high-profile jobs in the Justice Department, a new report said Monday.
New Jersey lawyer Geoffrey Berman’s name was one of several proposed candidates for judicial and US attorney vacancies in New York sent by the White House in the last month to New York’s Democratic senators, BuzzFeed reported, citing sources.
Berman was the only name the administration pitched for US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The White House submitted multiple names for other positions, including federal judges and the Eastern District’s top prosecutor.
A second source told the website that the list was intended to begin a conversation with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand about a compromise on the nominees.
The White House usually lets a state’s senators recommend US attorney candidates, but with Republican Trump in the White House, the matter could turn into a street fight.
A White House spokesperson also did not immediately respond to questions about the list of names.
Berman is one of the leaders of the New Jersey office of the law firm Greenberg Traurig.
He served in the Justice Department as an assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1990 to 1994, according to his law firm’s website.
Trump canned US Attorney Preet Bharara in March after he refused to resign.