President Barack Obama Friday nominated New York Sen. Charles Schumer's chief counsel to be the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan and tapped a former Justice Department lawyer as New Jersey's federal prosecutor.
Preet Bharara, 40, Schumer's adviser since 2005, managed the Senate Judiciary Committee's probe into the Bush Administration's firing of eight U.S. Attorneys.
Previously, Bharara had worked in the office he is now slated to run, prosecuting criminal cases against the mob and Asian gangs from 2000 to 2005 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Obama also nominated attorney Paul Fishman, 52, to be U.S. attorney for New Jersey, based on the recommendation of the state's two Democratic U.S. Senators, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez. Fishman, 52, a partner in a Newark law firm since 1997, has 14 years experience with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice.
