President-elect Donald Trump is expected to seek the resignation of U.S. Attorneys appointed by Joe Biden, including Philip Sellinger of New Jersey, as he prepares to make his own pick.
Early candidates under consideration include two conservative state senators, Douglas Steinhardt (R-Lopatcong) and Michael Testa, Jr. (R-Vineland).
Also under consideration is Scott McBride, who spent more than a decade as an Assistant U.S. Attorney before joining Lowenstein Sandler’s white-collar defense practice. More candidates are likely to emerge.
Any nomination by Trump will require assistance from the two Democrats who will represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate next year: Cory Booker and Andy Kim. It’s not unusual for a Republican president to find a candidate acceptable to Democratic senators – George W. Bush did it in 2001 when Bob Torricelli and Jon Corzine accepted his pick of Chris Christie – but Trump was unable to move forward on a U.S. Attorney nominee in New Jersey during his first term.
If Sellinger follows tradition and steps down – he was widely expected to depart even if Kamala Harris had won the presidency — First Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna could assume the top spot as acting U.S. Attorney temporarily.
After taking office in 2017, Trump never nominated a U.S. Attorney for New Jersey; his original pick, Geoffrey Berman, was instead offered the same job in the Southern District of New York. Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Craig Carpenito as acting U.S. Attorney in January 2018. Near the end of the 120-day limit for acting federal prosecutors, the judges of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey met and approved Carpenito on a permanent basis.
That vote is among the seventeen active district court judges; senior status judges don’t participate. While the process isn’t overtly political, fifteen of the seventeen federal judges in New Jersey were appointed by Democratic presidents.
Steinhardt is a partner at Florio Perrucci, a large statewide law firm. He is a former Republican State Chairman and a strong Trump supporter; he chaired the Republican convention delegation for Trump in 2020. Testa served as Trump’s 2020 New Jersey campaign chairman and is the Cumberland County GOP Chairman.
McBride’s candidacy is being advanced by Christopher Porrino, a former New Jersey Attorney General under Gov. Chris Christie and the litigation chair at the Lowenstein firm. While Porrino maintains a close relationship with Christie, he has also cultivated connections in the Trump world. McBride also knows Trump; the two once allegedly played golf together.
While working for the Justice Department while Christie was the U.S. Attorney, McBride was the deputy chief of the Economic Crimes Unit.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), the chairman of Trump’s New Jersey campaign, is expected to have some influence over the selection.
Sellinger was the choice of the state’s senior U.S. Senator at the time, Bob Menendez. The relationship between Sellinger and Menendez became messy and ultimately deteriorated; Sellinger wound up testifying against Menendez at his federal corruption trial.