Arthur Aidala, a politically-connected lawyer with a roster of high-profile clients that includes Rudy Giuliani and a top adviser to Mayor Adams, is under consideration by President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team to become the next U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, the Daily News has learned.
According to three sources familiar with the matter, members of the federal judiciary and others have in recent private conversations with Trump’s team floated Aidala’s name for the prominent prosecutor post, currently occupied by Breon Peace, who was tapped for it by President Biden in 2021.
Trump considered Aidala for the Brooklyn U.S. attorney job at the outset of his first term in the White House, too, but ultimately nominated Richard Donoghue instead.
It wasn’t immediately clear who Trump’s team is considering for Brooklyn U.S. attorney besides Aidala. Trump’s transition team didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday, and a Peace spokesman declined to comment.
A Brooklyn native with prosecutorial experience in the borough’s state courts, Aidala has defended several high-profile clients in recent years, including disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.
He told The News on Wednesday it would be an “honor” to become Brooklyn’s U.S. attorney.
“If I was called upon to serve the community that I grew up in and lived in that capacity, I would consider it the honor of a lifetime,” said Aidala, who currently runs his own white-collar criminal defense law firm.
As Aidala angles to become Brooklyn’s next top federal prosecutor, several individuals connected to Adams are ensnared in investigations conducted by Peace’s office.
In February, federal investigators raided the Bronx homes of Winnie Greco, a senior adviser to Adams, as part of a probe led by Peace that’s at least in part reportedly scrutinizing fundraising for the mayor’s 2021 campaign.
Greco, who hasn’t been charged with any wrongdoing, resigned from her City Hall job in October after Adams was criminally indicted in a separate federal case brought by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office.
Aidala also counts Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Adams’ chief adviser, as a friend and client. Aidala is representing Lewis-Martin in connection with a corruption investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office that resulted in her phones being seized and home raided in September.
To boot, Aidala is an Adams campaign donor and close friend of Frank Carone, Adams’ ex-chief of staff and political confidant.
Peace’s office recently served a subpoena on the Brooklyn Diocese seeking records about financial dealings between Carone and Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello, a Brooklyn priest. Aidala is representing Gigantiello in that matter and has said his client isn’t a target of that investigation.
Aidala has represented Giuliani in legal proceedings, too, and is personally acquainted with both the former mayor and Adams, saying in an October 2022 radio appearance: “I’m friendly with Mayor Giuliani, and I’m friendly with Mayor Adams.”
Aidala declined to comment on conversations he has had about the potential U.S. attorney nomination or say whether he’d recuse himself from cases involving current or former Adams administration officials. The U.S. Senate would likely need to confirm Aidala should he ultimately be nominated.
Amid word that he’s under consideration for the job, Aidala got a ringing public endorsement from a prominent attorney with ties to Trump.
“He’s one of the best lawyers in the city,” said Alan Dershowitz, the former Harvard University professor who defended Trump during his first U.S. Senate impeachment trial in 2020. “He’s a quintessential Brooklyn New Yorker. If you had to describe the perfect U.S. attorney candidate it’d be Arthur Aidala.”
With John Annese