Short list for high-profile US attorney jobs

NEW YORK (AP) — Republican politicians in New York have been putting together short lists of potential candidates to replace the top U.S. prosecutors in New York City, a hub for terrorism, insider-trading and anticorruption trials.

Some of the people being talked about as candidates include the son of a former U.S. attorney general, a former Fox News legal analyst and a prosecutor who had a chance to go after the head of the International Monetary Fund but declined.

Whoever is chosen by the White House to become the U.S. attorneys in Manhattan and Brooklyn will be inheriting a number of high-profile, potentially politically fraught investigations and prosecutions that were previously being overseen by prosecutors appointed by former President Barack Obama who were abruptly dismissed last week.

“I assume everything’s going to be expedited,” said U.S. Rep. Peter King, a Republican involved in helping draft lists of recommended candidates.

Among the people seen as leading candidates to replace Preet Bharara as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan is Marc Mukasey, the son of former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who served in the administration of President George W. Bush.

Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor, is currently the head of the white-collar defense practice at Greenberg Traurig, where he is a partner with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who’s a close ally of President Donald Trump.

Mukasey is Giuliani’s favorite for the post, King said, but if picked, he could face potential conflicts of interest because of work he has done as a defense lawyer.

One of his clients has been former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, who resigned amid sexual harassment allegations. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan recently subpoenaed a former Fox News employee to testify before a grand jury examining how 21st Century Fox Inc. handled the harassment scandal. Fox News has previously confirmed that it was communicating with federal prosecutors and would cooperate with all inquiries.

Mukasey declined to speak with The Associated Press but told the New York Law Journal last month that while he loved private practice, “if asked to serve my country, that is something I take very seriously.”

Other politically charged investigations underway in the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office include a probe of online communications between a teenage girl and former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat.