Report: NJ attorney Berman being considered for top federal prosecutor in Manhattan

The head of the New Jersey office of an international law firm, who had been under consideration for the state's top federal law enforcement job despite objections from Gov. Chris Christie, might be in line for the same post on the other side of the Hudson River, Buzzfeed reported Monday.

Geoffrey Berman of Princeton was listed as a potential U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in a package of proposed candidates for New York judicial and prosecutorial vacancies sent to the state's U.S. senators in July, Buzzfeed said, citing a source familiar with the process.

Berman was a member of President Donald Trump's transition team and is co-managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig's office in Florham Park. Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor and U.S. Attorney, is also a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig.

Berman's name has been mentioned in news reports as a potential U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, but the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in May that Christie was pushing another candidate, Craig Carpenito, and got Republicans in the state congressional delegation to send a letter endorsing him.

Carpenito represented Christie in a case in Bergen County municipal and county court that sought to compel the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate whether the governor committed official misconduct in the Bridgegate scandal. 

The Greenberg Traurig firm has more than 2,000 attorneys it has in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

According the firm's website, Berman focuses on criminal and regulatory investigations as well as commercial litigation. From 1990 to 1994, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District, where he handled tax, securities and computer hacking violations.

Prior to that, Berman served as associate counsel in the U.S. Office of Independent Counsel during the Iran-Contra scandal, and he successfully prosecuted a former CIA employee for tax fraud.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate and Stanford Law School, he clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which covers New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Trenton bureau reporter Nicholas Pugliesi contributed to this story.