When Jamel Semper appears before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow to consider his nomination as a federal judge, he’ll sit next to Bob Menendez, who is under indictment on federal corruption charges.
Menendez and Cory Booker will both introduce Semper to the panel, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed. It’s customary for home-state senators to perform that task.
Semper is an Assistant U.S. Attorney who serves as deputy chief of the criminal division.
The optics for Semper, a career prosecutor, are uncomfortable. But Semper has no choice: it was Menendez who advocated for his nomination by the White House for a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court. And with a razor-thin Democratic majority in the Senate, Semper can’t afford to offend Menendez.
Menendez has steadfastly insisted that he is innocent, so it’s not surprising that he will join Semper at the table for the start of the confirmation process.
The selection of Semper’s boss, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger, was mentioned in the Justice Department’s indictment of Menendez. Federal prosecutors said Menendez sought to influence the prosecution of Fred Daibes, his longtime donor and now co-defendant. Sellinger wound up recusing himself, and there is no suggestion that Semper was anywhere near this.
The 41-year-old Semper spent over ten years as a prosecutor in Union and Essex counties before becoming an Assistant U.S. Attorney in 2018. He was chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Organized Crime and Gangs section. Semper had made a short list for U.S. Attorney in 2021 and was a finalist to become New Jersey Attorney General in 2022.
President Biden nominated Semper on September 6 to replace John Michael Vazquez, who retired last month.
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