How federal judges and the White House came together to pick a new U.S. Attorney

The March 23 announcement that New Jersey’s District Court judges had appointed Robert Frazer as the next U.S. Attorney took almost everyone by surprise, but it followed several days of negotiations between the state’s top federal judge and a leading official at the Department of Justice.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Chief District Judge Renée Marie Bumb late last week that he wanted Frazer appointed to the role, according to several people familiar with the discussions. Frazer, a career prosecutor who has worked in the Justice Department for more than two decades, went through a full vetting process and was interviewed by staff at the White House and the DOJ.

One key part of that vetting process: Frazer assuring the White House that he had voted for Donald Trump for president all three times.

Bumb, a George W. Bush-appointed judge who leads a 17-member court consisting of almost entirely Barack Obama and Joe Biden appointees, worked to make sure there was consensus among the judges before moving forward. “I am just one vote,” she repeatedly said.

Ultimately, Frazer was able to become that consensus choice in part thanks to the backing of District Judge Jamel Semper, a former colleague in the U.S. Attorney’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section. Frazer’s appointment brought to an end a tumultuous year in the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s office, one that began when Trump appointed Alina Habba to the job and made the office into a national flashpoint in the debate over the limitations on presdedential powers.

And Frazer may be there for good, at least until a new president arrives in the White House. Senator Cory Booker’s office said that the only way for Frazer to be displaced now is for the Senate to confirm a different nominee, which is unlikely for a number of reasons.

“Despite Senators Booker and [Andy] Kim’s repeated efforts to work with the president to find someone to fill the vacancy through the Senate, there is no indication that the White House will now try to fill the role through the confirmation process,” a Booker aide said.

Much is still unknown about Frazer, a 59-year-old Hudson County resident who worked as the senior trial counsel in the organized crime and gangs unit and who was previously an assistant Manhattan district attorney trying homicide cases. His official biography on the DOJ website includes no actual biographical details, and it’s not clear whether an image of him exists anywhere on the internet.

Voter registration records show that Frazer is a registered Republican who has voted in most recent general elections, including the past four presidential elections, but does not vote in primaries. He is not admitted to practice law in New Jersey (not a necessary prerequisite for a federal prosecutor) but is admitted in New York.

Frazer was not the first person the Trump administration floated to the state’s District Court judges. As the New Jersey Globe reported in February, the DOJ’s first choice was Jordan Fox, one of three prosecutors named to lead the office in December as part of a “triumvirate” structure that was later ruled unlawful.

But Fox faced pushback from the judges over her age – the 30-year-old Bergen County native was just five years out of law school – and Bumb communicated to the DOJ that the votes weren’t there for Fox to be confirmed.

Another member of the triumvirate, Philip Lamparello, was also discussed as a possible candidate, but he lacked support from both the judges and the White House.

Additional pressure to find a consensus pick mounted in recent weeks after U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi tossed Mark Coyne, the head of the U.S. Attorney’s appellate section, from his courtroom in frustration over a lack of clarity about the office’s structure.

Quraishi ordered Fox, Lamparello, and Ari Fontecchio, the final member of the triumvirate, to appear before him and testify about who was in charge of the office. The DOJ, the New Jersey Globe has learned, was anxious to install a new U.S. Attorney before the three were due to appear.

Two people who were not consulted at any point in the complex negotiations: Booker and Kim, who would normally get a say in U.S. Attorney picks via the Senate confirmation process but who were bypassed entirely in the discussions between the judiciary and the DOJ. The senators have expressed cautious optimism about Frazer, but were harshly critical of the process that put him in office.

“If Biden had done this in a red state, with two [Republican] senators, they would be up in arms,” Booker said.

Kim said he hadn’t even met Frazer before; Booker said he has no specific recollection of doing so, but admitted that it’s possible they’ve interacted during Frazer’s long career in the office. Both said they hope to meet with Frazer soon.

The one time Booker and Kim were given the ability to directly weigh in on the U.S. Attorney’s office came last July, when Trump submitted Habba’s nomination to the Senate. Booker and Kim, both of whom strongly disapproved of Habba, used the Senate’s blue-slip process to block her nomination from advancing, prompting the DOJ to look for workarounds to keep her in power and kicking off an eight-month crisis in the office.

The two senators said that, with case dismissals and general chaos growing more likely the longer the office remained without a proper leader, they’re at least glad someone is now lawfully in power to right the ship.

“I want to make it known that this is not something that I want to see the Trump administration ever do again,” Kim said. “I don’t want to see them try to replicate this in other states or do this again in New Jersey down the road. But look, I’m glad at least we can try to get that office up and running.”

Even Habba, though, was not Trump’s first pick for the U.S. Attorney post; she was the third, which makes Frazer the seventh option the Trump administration has put forward for the job.

Initially, the job was offered to State Sen. Douglas Steinhardt (R-Lopatcong), but he wound up turning it down. The post instead went to John Giordano, a former federal prosecutor and Trump transition lawyer, who served as interim U.S. Attorney for 24 days before being nominated as the U.S. Ambassador to Namibia.

Giordano was then replaced by Habba, Trump’s former personal attorney and a conservative firebrand, whose appointment and subsequent actions repeatedly made national news. Habba attempted to stay on as acting U.S. Attorney after her 120-day term had expired, prompting a lengthy battle that only ended after a Pennsylvania District Court judge and an appellate panel of Third Circuit judges said her appointment was unlawful; she left office in December and is now a senior advisor to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

From there, the Trump administration attempted to install the triumvirate, with each of the three prosecutors heading up different divisions of the office, but that too was struck down earlier this month. Fox was floated alone, followed by Lamparello, before Frazer was finally agreed upon.

There was an eighth name in the mix too: Desiree Grace. As Habba’s interim term ended last July, the District Court declined to keep her in office and instead voted to appoint Grace, formerly Habba’s top deputy, as the new U.S. Attorney. Grace did not have a green light from the Trump administration, however, and was blocked from ever ascending to the role.

The federal judiciary also had to step in during Trump’s first term, when Craig Carpenito’s interim term expired in April 2018 without a vote in the Senate due to opposition from Booker and then-Senator Bob Menendez. Carpenito, who was substantially less controversial than Habba, met the approval of the judges and held the office for the remainder of Trump’s term.