Joe Nocella Jr. gets 120-day interim appointment as head of EDNY

Daily Point

Schumer had blocked confirmation to stymie Trump

In January, President Donald Trump nominated Joseph Nocella Jr., a Nassau County lawyer closely tied to the local Republican Party, to be the top federal prosecutor for Long Island. He started the job Monday, despite Sen. Chuck Schumer blocking his formal confirmation as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Nocella had a short and private swearing-in service in Brooklyn witnessed by his family and at least five EDNY judges and conducted by Margo K. Brodie, the chief judge for EDNY. Nocella said "coming back to the office was a dream come true."

Nocella was appointed Friday in an interim role by Attorney General Pam Bondi. He now can serve for 120 days in the temporary spot. After that, he must step down unless the judges on the Eastern District bench appoint him as an interim indefinitely until and unless the U.S. Senate confirms a Trump nominee for the Eastern District.

A nomination by judges could be possible but given Nocella’s low profile in federal litigation and lack of familiarity with many of the EDNY judges, it’s too early to determine those odds, one EDNY insider told The Point.

The temporary appointment follows Bondi’s naming of Jay Clayton as interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Clayton, a former partner in the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm and former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has a much higher profile in the profession and probably could secure a judicial appointment after his 120-day appointment under the federal Vacancies Act expires.

The EDNY district has jurisdiction over the enforcement of federal law in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn. Schumer's opposition is directed toward Trump’s "lack of fidelity to the law," according to a source familiar with Schumer's thinking. So it’s unlikely he will pull his blue slip — a Senate tradition that allows a home state representative to block a nomination from moving forward — in opposition to Nocella after 120 days, the source said. 

Nocella, a graduate of Columbia Law School, got the nod from Trump on the strength of his ties to Nassau County GOP leader Joseph Cairo. Decades ago, Nocella was an EDNY prosecutor for four years but is primarily known as a local government attorney with strong GOP ties, working in the county attorney’s office as well as being town attorney for both Oyster Bay and Hempstead. He would be the first prosecutor in recent years with deep knowledge of how Long Island works, especially its politics and fundraising, but whether that would inform a focus on ensuring there are no illegal conflicts of interest in local government or serve to insulate its most prominent players remains to be seen.

Nocella was appointed a Nassau County district court judge and won a Nassau County Family Court judgeship last year. The Family Court judgeship is not on the ballot until 2026, allowing Gov. Kathy Hochul to fill the spot until the election.

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Spelling it out

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Quick Points

For openers

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• After naming Secretary of State Marco Rubio to also serve as acting national security adviser, President Donald Trump was quoted by an adviser as saying, "When I have a problem, he has answers. He can fix things." True. Rubio fixed himself, after all, changing from a traditional Reagan conservative to a full-blown Trump Republican.
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— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com

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