Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace announced Wednesday he will step down from the job next month, just days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Peace, the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York which covers Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island, said his last day will be Jan. 10. President Biden tapped him for the spot in 2021.
The announcement comes less than a month after Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, Damian Williams, announced he’ll resign before Trump takes office as well.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as United States attorney, to be at the forefront in protecting the over eight million residents of this great district from harm, in upholding the rule of law and promoting civil rights and dignity for all people,” Peace said in a statement.
First Assistant United States attorney Carolyn Pokorny will become the Eastern District’s acting U.S. attorney after Peace leaves.
Peace’s office is currently handling a number of political corruption probes, including the pending prosecution of Linda Sun, an aide to Gov. Hochul accused of acting as an agent of China, and ongoing investigations into a number of aides and confidants of Mayor Adams, including longtime Adams adviser Winnie Greco.
Peace also prosecuted former New York Rep. George Santos, who’s awaiting sentencing after admitting to a cascade of fraud and identity theft allegations.
His office has also handled Trumpworld-connected prosecutions over the past few years. Eastern District prosecutors won a guilty verdict in 2023 of far-right Twitter troll Douglass Mackey, who posted fake ads telling Hillary Clinton supporters they could vote in the 2016 election by text.
Peace’s office also oversaw the prosecution of longtime Trump ally Tom Barrack, who was acquitted in 2022 of using his access to the former president to influence foreign policy on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
Peace’s prosecutors also won convictions in the high-profile trial of two men charged with Run DMC co-founder Jam Master Jay’s murder in 2002, and in the corruption trial of former Mexico top cop Genaro Garcia Luna.
Sources have told the Daily News that Arthur Aidala, a politically connected lawyer with a roster of high-profile clients that includes Rudy Giuliani and Mayor Adams’ former top adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin, is under consideration by Trump’s transition team to replace Peace, though his isn’t the only name in consideration.
Originally Published:
