Credit: The International New York Times
As a district court judge on Long Island, Joseph Nocella Jr presided over low-level criminal cases and disputes involving small amounts of money. He could soon oversee some of the country’s highest-profile criminal cases.
This week, President-elect Donald Trump announced that Nocella was his pick to be the next US attorney for the Eastern District of New York. In a statement announcing his choice on Truth Social, Trump said Nocella had “a strong record of bringing Law and Order to the incredible people of New York.”
As a Long Island judge, Nocella has adjudicated matters like COVID-19 relief fraud and drunken-driving cases and presided over family court.
The Eastern District, where Nocella was a prosecutor decades ago, operates at a different scale: The office and its 160-some prosecutors have long pursued high-profile cases involving organized crime, national security and foreign politicians. It has won convictions in a variety of recent blockbuster cases, including against singer R Kelly, who was convicted of sex crimes; disgraced former Rep George Santos; and leaders of the sex cult NXIVM.
Seth DuCharme, who served as acting US attorney in 2020, said Nocella’s range of experiences, including presiding over a small court, would serve him well in the district, which he called “a friendlier version” of its more high-profile neighbor, the Southern District of New York. But he noted that Nocella was something of an outsider.
“I think that probably most of the prosecutors were surprised,” DuCharme said. “It’s not a name they’ve heard about a lot.”
Former Sen Alfonse M D’Amato, a Long Island Republican, said the Nassau Republican Party’s chair, Joseph G Cairo Jr, “went to bat” for Nocella with the incoming Trump administration to help secure the nomination, which the Senate must approve.
“He’s a fairly new judge, but outstanding. You couldn’t get a better background,” D’Amato said in an interview. “A great selection.”
Nocella, who could not be reached for comment, graduated from Fordham University in 1986 and received his law degree from Columbia University in 1989. During a stint as an assistant US attorney in the Eastern District from 1991 to 1995, Nocella won convictions against a married couple who stole $35 million from large banks, and against Vittorio Amuso, the head of the Lucchese crime family.
As US attorney, Nocella would earn almost $192,000 annually. The Eastern District he would oversee covers Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, as well as Suffolk and Nassau counties, a population of about 8 million people, according to its website.
Nocella has deep connections in Nassau County’s formidable Republican political machine and has spent recent years working in a series of prominent legal roles in local government. He worked as a lawyer for Nassau County and later as town attorney in Oyster Bay and Hempstead before becoming a judge in 2022. Nocella was also a reliable donor to GOP causes, contributing thousands of dollars to local Republican candidates and clubs over the past decades.
Nassau County has lurched to the right politically in recent years, with its Republican Party embracing Trump. Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive who won election in 2021, is a close ally of Trump and has created a force of armed citizens he says will be used in case of civil unrest and has also faced off with a roller derby team with transgender members.
In a social media post, Blakeman praised the choice of Nocella, calling him “a valuable asset in fighting crime and protecting the homeland.”
Some Democrats criticized Nocella as overly partisan, but others signaled they were more supportive of his nomination. Rep. Laura Gillen, a first-term Democrat who represents a competitive district on Long Island, said she would “look forward to working with him on the issues that matter to Nassau County residents.”
Anne Donnelly, the Nassau County district attorney and a Republican, said she had known Nocella since they were 18 and students at Fordham University and described him as fair-minded. She said his experience overseeing “a rainbow of cases,” along with his familiarity with the Eastern District’s terrain, would serve him well.
“One thing about Joe: He certainly knows Long Island,” Donnelly said.