President Donald Trump reportedly narrowed down the list of candidates he’s suggesting to be the next top federal prosecutor on Long Island to two prominent attorneys.
The candidates to be the next U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York are Richard Donoghue and Edward McNally, according to the New York Daily News, Buzzfeed and other media outlets that all cited anonymous sources.
McNally is a partner in the Manhattan-based law firm of Kasowitz Benson Torres, which was co-founded by Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s former outside counsel handling the president’s response to the federal probe into suspected ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Donoghue, a former prosecutor who served more than a decade in the Eastern District, is the chief counsel to Islandia-based CA Technologies.
Whichever one gets the nod will require confirmation by the U.S. Senate, where Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), the Senate Democratic Minority Leader, can block their approval if they object.
If approved, one or the other would replace Bridget Rohde, who has been acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York since U.S. Attorney Jeff Session dismissed her predecessor, Robert Capers. Capers replaced Loretta Lynch, who led the office until former President Barack Obama appointed her U.S. Attorney.
Besides Nassau and Suffolk, the Eastern District also prosecutes federal cases—often involving terrorism, the mafia and Wall Street—in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The office has numerous high-profile prosecutions awaiting trail, including cases against members of MS-13 who committed a quadruple murder in Central Islip—a crime that prompted visits by Sessions and Trump.
Other current high-profile unresolved cases include the prosecution of Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, former Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto, Hempstead Town Councilman Ed Ambrosino and an investigation into the office of Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.
