The Nassau County judge would replace Breon Peace, who was nominated by President Joe Biden in August 2021.
President-elect Donald J. Trump has named his choice for the U.S. attorney from the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella Jr.
Trump announced the selection several weeks after the current U.S. attorney from the district, Breon Peace, announced he would resign on Jan. 10, leaving his deputy Carolyn Pokorny to serve as acting U.S. attorney.
“Judge Nocella has a strong record of bringing Law and Order to the incredible people of New York,” Trump wrote in a Jan. 6 post on Truth Social announcing the pick. He noted that Nocella was an assistant U.S. attorney in that same district during the early 1990s.
The president-elect’s selection is a Columbia Law School graduate and a judge in Nassau County. He was previously town attorney for Hempstead and, before that, Oyster Bay.
The district includes Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, along with King’s County in Brooklyn, Richmond County on Staten Island, and Queens County. New York City’s other two boroughs, Manhattan and the Bronx, fall within the Southern District of New York.
Peace, the outgoing U.S. attorney, was nominated for that role by President Joe Biden in August 2021. The Senate confirmed the New York University Law School graduate in October of that year by a voice vote. Peace replaced Robert Capers, who was nominated to the position by then-President Barack Obama in 2015.
“I look forward to the Office’s continued courageous commitment to pursuing justice, fairly and ethically, without bias, without fear or favor, and with compassion and empathy for our fellow human beings,” Peace said in a statement announcing his resignation.
