Biden picks top Port Authority lawyer, Superior Court judge as federal judge in New Jersey

President Joe Biden will nominate Michael Farbyars, general counsel of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Supreme Court Justice Robert Kirsch to serve on the U.S. District Court in New Jersey, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.

Farbiartz, 48, spent nearly a decade as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he led counterterrorism prosecutions. Farbyarz was the lead prosecutor for eleven undercover Russian agents, including Anna Chapman, a Russian émigré who was hiding in plain sight in New York before being charged with espionage. He also prosecuted Somali pirates who hijacked an American container ship in the Indian Ocean and an al-Qaeda terrorist.

He joined the Port Authority in 2016 following the forced retirement of their longtime general counsel. He also served as Inspector General.

Farbyars graduated from Harvard University and Yale Law School. He clerked for Judge Michael Mukasey of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and Judge Jose Cabranes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A former senior fellow at New York University Law School, he was also in private practice at one of New York’s largest law firms, Davis Polk & Wardell.

Kirsch, 56, has served as a Union County Superior Court judge since 2010. He is a Republican from Westfield, the same municipality that produced the newest New Jersey Supreme Court Justice, Douglas Fasciale.

A graduate of Fordham Law School, Kirsch was nominated by Gov. Chris Christie and took office in 2017. After working in the family and civil divisions since 2016, he was appointed to the criminal court.

Prior to being appointed to the bench, Kirsch served as an Assistant United States Attorney in New Jersey for more than a decade.

Farbiartz and Kirsch will be the seventh and eighth federal judges appointed by Biden from New Jersey after a four-year period without Donald Trump holding either seat.

Their nominations will now go to the US Senate Judiciary, which is the first step in the confirmation process.