Matthew Petracca, the federal prosecutor in North Carolina who signed the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey for threatening to harm President Donald Trump, is a former Lincoln Park councilman who was involved in local politics in New Jersey.
The indictment came after Petracca presented a grand jury with a photo that Comey posted on Instagram, allegedly taken after arranging seashells on a beach in North Carolina to spell out the numbers “8647.” The indictment argues that 86 refers to getting rid of something, and that Trump is the 47th President.
Republicans in Morris County who know him said that Petracca was well-liked.
Petracca was elected councilman in the small Morris County municipality of about 11,000 in 2008, one year after graduating from Seton Hall Law School. The incumbent, Eileen Harrigan, gave up her Ward 2 council seat and local Republicans picked Petracca, then 26, to replace her. Lincoln Park is solidly Republican – Trump won it by 17 points in 2024 – and Democrats did not nominate a challenger to Petracca in the general election.
A slate of four Republicans running in Lincoln Park spent about $500.
He took office in January 2009 and served nearly three years of his four-year term before resigning in late 2011 to move to Pequannock. Cari Sweet-Kostolis was appointed to replace him. His law firm, King & Petracca, was quickly added to the list of law firms eligible to receive work from the borough.
Petracca, 43, was appointed to a series of local government legal posts in Morris County. He was the municipal attorney in Mendham Township, the municipal prosecutor in Randolph, Madison, Morris Plains, Morris Township, and Mendham, and the conflicts attorney in Wharton.
Gov. Chris Christie nominated Petracca to serve on the Morris County Board of Taxation in 2011 – he replaced Marianne McConnell — and he was easily confirmed by the State Senate. He was reappointed in 2017. Still, Petracca was not part of Christie’s orbit.
He also served as a Republican county committeeman.
As an attorney in New Jersey, Petracca handled mostly family law matters and appeared in municipal court matters.
Petracca authored an article for the Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy on the unconstitutional trend of banishing sex offenders at the municipal level.
He moved to North Carolina around 2019 and joined the North Carolina Department of Justice; he worked for Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat who is now the governor. He later became an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Records show that Petracca made relatively few campaign contributions to candidates: he gave roughly $600 to Morris County Clerk Anne Grossi, divided between her 2014 and 2019 campaigns. He contributed $100 to Rep. Brad Knott (R-North Carolina) last year.